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Demography and life-history parameters of mantled howler monkeys at La Flor de Catemaco: 20 years post-translocation

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Abstract

Translocations usually aim at maintaining and enhancing wild populations. Thus, the long-term monitoring of translocated individuals is critical for assessing translocation success. In this study, we report the demographic and life-history parameters of mantled howler monkeys that were translocated to La Flor de Catemaco (Los Tuxtlas, Mexico) to determine the success of the translocation process. Nine individuals belonging to two social groups living in areas that were going to be destroyed were released into La Flor de Catemaco between 2002 and 2004. Before 2022 there were no resident monkeys at the site. From January 2012 to December 2021, we recorded births, deaths, migrations, and group formation (1535 sampling days). The population grew until reaching 35 mantled howler monkeys. Two new groups including both individuals born at the site and migrants were founded. Mean ± SD group size was 8.1 ± 1.1 individuals. We recorded 42 births and 14 deaths, mostly of young infants (< 6 months of age). We recorded emigrations and immigrations of adult and immature individuals as well as several instances of individuals that remained and reproduced in their natal groups. Mean female age at first birth was 57.8 ± 18.5 months, interbirth intervals were 23.3 ± 11.3 months, and birth rates were 0.5 ± 0.2 births per female per year. The growth and persistence of the groups at the site, as well as similarity in demographic and life-history parameters between this and unmanaged populations, suggest that mantled howler monkeys living at La Flor de Catemaco represent a stable population and thus that this was a successful translocation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank La Flor de Catemaco S. A. de C. V. for granting permission to work at the site and to Ing. J. L. Ponce Puente for facilitating our research. The present study would not have been possible without the effort and dedication of all field assistants, students, volunteers, and researchers that have worked at La Flor de Catemaco over the last 20 years. We thank EA Bello-Sánchez for preparing Fig. 1 and two anonymous reviewers for useful comments and suggestions on previous versions of the manuscript. Research at La Flor de Catemaco has been funded by CONACyT, The Leakey Foundation, and Universidad Veracruzana. Research protocols were approved by the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales and adhered to the legal requirements of the Mexican law. We complied with the guidelines of the Primate Society of Japan.

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Universidad Veracruzana, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), Leakey Foundation.

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  1. Pedro Américo D. Dias and Ariadna Rangel Negrín contributed equally to this study.

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  1. Primate Behavioral Ecology Lab, Instituto de Neuro-etología, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico

    Pedro Américo D. Dias, Alejandro Coyohua-Fuentes, Domingo Canales-Espinosa & Ariadna Rangel-Negrín

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  1. Pedro Américo D. Dias
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  2. Alejandro Coyohua-Fuentes
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  3. Domingo Canales-Espinosa
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Correspondence to Pedro Américo D. Dias or Ariadna Rangel-Negrín.

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Dias, P.A.D., Coyohua-Fuentes, A., Canales-Espinosa, D. et al. Demography and life-history parameters of mantled howler monkeys at La Flor de Catemaco: 20 years post-translocation. Primates 64, 143–152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01030-z

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