CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Status Review and Population Viability Assessment (PVA) Brown howlers (Alouatta guariba) are one of the endemic primate species of the Atlantic Forest, ranging from the Brazilian states of Bahia and Espirito Santo in the North to Rio Grande do Sul and the Argentine Province of Misiones in the South (Kinzey 1982). In Argentina, the brown howler (Alouatta guariba ssp. clamitans) has been re-classified from ?endangered? to ?critically endangered? (Agostini et al. 2012) and included in the national list of the most threatened mammal species compiled by the Argentine Society for the Study of Mammals (SAREM) and by the National Authority in Fauna and Flora of Argentina. The province of Misiones has declared this species by law a Provincial Natural Monument. During three years (2005-2007), Ilaria Agostini, Ingrid Holzmann, and Mario Di Bitetti, carried out a comparative study on the behavioral ecology of brown howlers living in sympatry with the congener black and gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) in one protected area of Misiones, El Piñalito Provincial Park. Then, in 2008 and 2009, yellow fever outbreaks killed all study groups and dramatically decimated howlers throughout its southern distribution (Almeida et al. 2012; Bicca-Marques et al. 2010; Holzmann et al. 2010). Due to the suspected high impact of these epidemics, there is a special concern about the current status of the brown howler, which is the rarest monkey species in Argentina, only restricted to Eastern Misiones. This situation makes conservation action urgent. In order to establish conservation priorities for this species and its habitat in Argentina, an assessment of the current brown howler population status and the main threats has become critical. This step is necessary to develop and implement effective conservation and management plans that will increase the probability of persistence of this population in the medium-long term. The first BROWN HOWLER MONKEY CONSERVATION WORKSHOP Population Viability Assessment (PVA) was held in Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina, March 25-28, 2013 with the objective of establishing conservation priorities for this primate species in Argentina. During this three-day meeting 11 specialists (primatologists, epidemiologists, mosquito ecologists), examined the current knowledge and situation of brown howlers in Argentina and nearby areas of Brazil. To guide the work, a vision of what the group wanted to achieve was drafted: "In 100 years time, the population of brown howler monkeys in Misiones is viable in terms of demography, genetics and health, and ecologically functional in an environment that maintains the original biodiversity of the region and in a society committed with its conservation". Participants then proceeded to a threat analysis and concluded that the two biggest challenges to brown howler monkey conservation in Misiones were: lack of public awareness of the species and yellow fever outbreaks. To take advantage of the participants? areas of expertise, this workshop focused mainly on all aspects of yellow fever outbreaks. A flow chart was constructed to represent the factors (and the interactions between them) that influence the probability of occurrence of a yellow fever outbreak (e.g. virus virulence, mosquito species demographic dynamics, etc.) and its impact on brown howler population (population structure and connectivity, general health status, genetic resistance, etc.). Through this diagram, the most important gaps in knowledge were identified and a list of prioritized objectives and actions to be implemented was created.