Neotropical Primate Conservation
Primates Protecting Primates
This weekend we participated in joint meeting of global conservationists working together with local people to ensure conservation of many threatened species and habitats. The meeting was organized by our long time allies, the NGO “Community Conservation” with the idea of seeing how to further spread the successes of these projects and how we can all support each other in our work. We look forward to seeing this work develop in the future!
Yesterday we helped the ARA San Martin with a rescued baby Peruvian spider monkey (Ateles chamek). This animal was kept as a pet and confiscated in northern San Martin, far outside of its distribution. We were asked by the authorities to help with the transport and medical tests before being sent to a rescue centre in Loreto, in it’s natural distribution. Sadly this is this is not an isolated case and even during the pandemic we are finding animals illegally trafficked around Peru.
Our April newsletter is now out and available to read HERE. You can also sign up to our newsletter so you receive it by email every month!
After a year or so in various levels of lockdown it’s been great to be able to work in the field again. Last week the NPC Peru team and local volunteers began work clearing the area for the new tree nursery we are building with the Universidad Nacional de San Martin for our joint reforestation efforts.
Yesterday we were very pleased to be able to help the wildlife authorities of San Martin with transport and medical tests for two common woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagothricha). These victims of illegal wildlife trafficking were being transferred to a rescue centre in Loreto. Thankfully they were given a clean bill of health and we were able to send them immediately. At their new home they will have more space and be able to mix with others of their species, and maybe even return to the wild in the future.
It’s always exciting to go through camera trap photos! Here’s a selection from the latest batch, the star of the show is definitely the ocelot for sure, we confirmed the species at the site previously, but this is the first time we’ve caught it on camera trap.
Thanks to our conservation efforts for primates we are also protecting many other species with which they share their forest home.
A massive congratulations to the authors, including NPC Peru board member Patricia Mendoza, on this new paper out today in the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group journal Primate Conservation “Challenges to IUCN Guideline Implementation in the
Rehabilitation and Release of Trafficked Primates in Peru”
The paper can be downloaded freely from this link
Thanks to very generous grants from the International Primate Protection League and one private donor we are able to help the Environmental Authorities of San Martin and Loreto, Peru, with much needed travel kennels, GPS units and a drone for their continued fight against the illegal wildlife trade and destruction of the Amazon forests.
You too can make donations to our projects or for equipment to help us in Peru and Colombia (You just need to visit our website www.neoprimate.org and click on the donate button)
Many thanks to the Autoridad Regional Ambiental of San Martin. This evening we were able to help in an emergency translocation of a tree porcupine. The young animal had entered someone’s house from a nearby forest fragment, and luckily we were able to return it to the wild in a larger area of forest nearby.
Neotropical Primate Conservation 