Lagothrix poeppigii Schinz 1844
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Atelidae
Lagothrix
Lagothrix poeppigii

description: 22.
Poeppig’s Woolly Monkey
Lagothrix poeppigii
French: Lagotriche de Castelnau / German: Silbriger Wollaffe / Spanish: Mono lanudo plateado Other common names: Red Woolly Monkey, Silvery Woolly Monkey
Taxonomy. Lagothrix poeppigii Schinz, 1844,
Brazil, banks of the Rio Maranon. Restricted by A. Cabrera in 1957 to Peru, lower Rio Huallaga, north of Yurimaguas, Loreto.
The revision of the genus Lagothrix by]J. Fooden in 1963 placed L. poeppigii as a subspecies of L. lagothricha (along with lugens and cana). Because of its clear phenotypic difference, poeppigii was regarded as a distinct species by C. P. Groves in 2001.
An orange-colored woolly monkey was depicted in E. Cruz Lima’s 1945 book Mammals of Amazonia, (plate XVI). It was based on a captive juvenile of unknown provenance. The wild population was discovered by C. Peres in 2003, west of the town of Eirunepé on the upper Rio Jutaizinho, the west bank of the Rio Jurua in the south-western Brazilian Amazon. An extremely light-colored variant is pale ocherous-blond, with the color of the head being distinctly lighter than that of the back. The arms, legs, hands, feet, tail tip, and ventral surface are ocherous-white. The facial skin is pitch black, and the muzzle and chin are bordered with white whiskers. Both forms remain to be officially described and may in fact represent distinct subspecies or species. Monotypic.
Distribution. From the highlands of the Cordillera Oriental in E Ecuador and N Peru, extending E, S of rios Napo and Amazonas, to ¢.70° W, 5° S to the Rio Jurud in W Brazil, and S, W of the Rio Ucayali, to the Rio Pachitea in EC Peru.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 46-65 cm (males) and 46-58 cm (females), tail 62— 80 cm (males) and 53-72 cm (females); weight of males c.7 kg (but when dominant they become more robust and can weigh as much as 10 kg) and of females 5-7 kg. Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys range in color from light yellow-gray through every shade of brown to almost black, although generally with a silvery sheen. Head, hands,feet, chest, and groin are invariably black, with the remainder of the belly being deep reddish. Males are larger than females with larger canines and well-developed masseter muscles on either side of the head. The clitoris is as long as or longer than the penis, but adult males have easily seen testicles. A rare color morph is light yellow-gray with a dark head and extremities. The most silvery individuals come from the highest elevations along the western edge of its range. Those from the eastern (lowland) part of the distribution most likely represent a distinct subspecies.
Habitat. Primary and some secondary lowland and high-elevation rainforest. Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys use the middle and upper forest canopy.
Food and Feeding. The diet of Poeppig’s Woolly Monkey is similar to that of Humboldt’s Woolly Monkey (L. lagothricha). Two habituated groups in eastern Ecuador had an annual diet of 76-4% fruits, 10% insects, 7-2% leaves, 3-3% flowers, 1-3% undetermined plant parts, 0-9% aroid epiphyte pith, 0-5% immature seeds, 0-3% vertebrates including frogs, and 0-1% fungi. Offruits eaten, 95% were ripe or nearly so, and 80% of the leaves were new or meristematic tissue of tendrils and growing points of epiphytic vines. Plant foods in the diet corresponded to a minimum of 231 morpho-species, belonging to at least 77 genera and 45 families. Offruits eaten, the diet was strongly biased toward a small number of important species. The nine most frequently selected genera made up more than 50% ofall fruit feeding records: 12:9% Inga (Fabaceae), 8:5% Ficus (Moraceae), 7-1% Spondias (Anacardiaceae), 4-:6% Trichilia (Meliaceae), 4-2% Otoba (Myristicaceae), 3:8% Coccoloba (Polygonaceae), 3-:3% Quararibea (Bombacaceae), 3:2% Pourouma (Urticaceae), 2:4% Byrsonima (Malpighiaceae), 2-1% Paullinia (Sapindaceae), 2-1% Guatteria (Annonaceae), and 2-1% Matisia (Bombacaceae). More than 75% of all fruit feeding records came from just 31 genera from 22 families, and more than 50% of the fruit were from just seven families: 15-3% Fabaceae, 10-8% Moraceae, 8-:2% Anacardiaceae, 5-3% Bombacaceae, 5-2% Mpyristicaceae, 4-6% Meliaceae, and 3-9% Sapindaceae. Proportions of fruit in the diet varied from highs of 87:5% in March and 88:7% in July to a low of 63:6% in December. During months of low fruit consumption, Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys ate more flowers and leaves. Males ate significantly more insects and other prey than either females or juveniles; adult males ate insects 10-7% of the time and subadult males 13%. Adult females ate insects only 7:5% of the time and subadult females 7-3%. Feeding party size was 1-11 individuals (average 2-9). In this study, Poeppig’s Woolly Monkey generally eat from large trees; mean trunk diameter at breast height of all feeding trees was 43-2 cm. Another study in the same part of Ecuador recorded 104 species provided fruit, constituting about 74% of the diet, with the remaining 10% being leaves, 5% flowers, and 11% insect eggs, larvae, spiders, ants, caterpillars, termites, beetles, katydids, bees, cicadas, hemipteran bugs, millipedes, tree frogs, and lizards.
Breeding. Copulation of Poeppig’s Woolly Monkey is often preceded by solicitations from the female who uses a click (or “tooth chatter”) vocalization when 10 m or less from the male. The male sometimes answers the female in the same way, which sometimes continues through mating. Males may ignore solicitations from females. Nineteen of 44 mounts recorded were performed by adult males, 24 by subadult males, and one by a male of undetermined maturity. The average mount lasts c.4 minutes, based on 25 mounts. Multiple males often mate with a single female during her period of receptivity on the same day or on separate days. Male Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys are very tolerant of each another, but other adult females often harassed a copulating pair, sometimes interrupting them. Stereotyped scent marking using chest and anogenital areas is performed by males and females and seems to be associated with mating, although its role is not well understood. A single young is born after a gestation of ¢.225 days.
Activity patterns. Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys are diurnal and arboreal. A time budget calculated for two groups was 35-5% moving, 19-5% eating, 17-3% foraging, 17-1% resting, 8:7% engaged in social activity, 1-4% engaged in other activities, and 0-5% engaged in agonistic behavior. There were monthly variations in activities, particularly for foraging and resting, correlated with fruit abundance. They foraged and rested more when fruit was abundant and rested less when fruit was scarce.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Groups of Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys are multimale-multifemale, generally with 23-25 individuals. Genetic evidence indicates that most females disperse from their natal group, although some males also probably disperse. Two groups studied during one year moved an average of 2642 m/ day and 2447 m/day in home ranges of ¢.120 ha and 108 ha. The groups had core areas in their home ranges, which were used intensively. High home range overlap was typical, e.g. 45%, 47% and 70% for three groups. Densities of Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys in eastern Ecuador are the highest (so far) for any Lagothrix population at c.31 ind/km?.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Vulnerable on The [UCN Red List. Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys are hunted, their meat being considered delicious and the fat is used in cooking and for medicinal purposes. They are frequently kept as pets by Indians and Amazon settlers. Hunters target the mother to obtain the infant. They are sold openly as bushmeat in markets in Iquitos, despiteits illegality. There is reason to believe Poeppig’s Woolly Monkeys have declined by at least 30% over the past 45 years (three generations) due primarily to hunting and habitat loss. They are known to occur in nine protected areas: Serra do Divisor National Park, Jutai-Solimoes Ecological Reserve, and Javari-Buriti Area of Outstanding Ecological Interest in Brazil; Podocarpus, Sangay Sumaco Napo-Galeras, and Yasuni national parks in Ecuador; and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve and ARC Comunal Tamshiyacu Tahuayo in Peru.
Bibliography. Aquino et al. (2007), Cant et al. (2001), da Cruz Lima (1945), Dew (2005), Di Fiore (1997), Di Fiore & Fleischer (2005), Di Fiore & Rodman (2001), Di Fiore, Link, Schmitt & Spehar (2009), Di Fiore, Link & Stevenson (2006), Fooden (1963), Groves (2001), Peres (1993d), Ruiz-Garcia & Pinedo-Castro (2010), Soini (1990¢), Stevenson etal. (2008).
description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Atelidae, pp. 484-549 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 546-547, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5727205