We are close to completing our goal of 12 months’ census work of primates in the forest of Santa Cecilia and Amurrupa. This study will provide the first density estimates of our flagship species, the Colombian black spider monkey and, better still, the surveys have been led by local residents from the Afro descendent community of Santa Cecilia.
We have been carrying out similar surveys in Tatamá National Park, together with local community residents and staff and guards of the national parks service. Tatamá protects some of the best preserved Chocó rainforest in the Risaralda department, where we have had encounters with its amazing primates and other wildlife. The Colombia team have also been extending into new areas, surveying primates in the Putumayo region, a little explored area in Colombia’s far south.