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Habitat fragmentation due to human activities is one of the principal threats to all primates and is particularly so for arboreal platyrrhines. Its impact has been extreme in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, where most primate populations have been severely reduced in numbers and their distributions restricted, resulting in low probabilities of long-term persistence. One of the most severely affected species is the northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus), which today has fewer than 1,000 individuals distributed over only a dozen populations and is considered to be Critically Endangered. Most of these populations are isolated and smaller than 50 individuals, including the population inhabiting the Sossego Forest in Simonésia, Minas Gerais. With fewer than 30 individuals associating in one social group, the Sossego muriqui population is doomed to extinction unless emergency management measures are implemented to protect it. We monitored the demography of the Sossego muriquis to evaluate the impacts of the introduction of a reproductive-aged female that was translocated into this population in December 2006. Data were collected on all individuals, identifiable from their natural markings, during 3 to 12 monthly surveys conducted each year from July 2012 to June 2020. They revealed that the population grew from 32 individuals in July 2012 to a peak of 38 in September 2015, but then declined to a low of 22 individuals in September 2017, coinciding with a yellow fever outbreak in the region. As of June 2020, there were 24 individuals present. Four of the surviving individuals were the translocated female and three of her five offspring. One of her daughters was confirmed to have emigrated to another forest fragment and a second daughter has not been seen since March 2019 and is suspected to have emigrated. During the eight years of monitoring, we recorded 17 births (11 females and six males) and 25 disappearances involving 17 females, including the female confirmed to have dispersed, and eight males. Our results emphasize the risks of demographic stochasticity in small, isolated populations. The confirmed emigration of one dispersal-aged female that failed to locate a group to join, and the absence of any immigrants, call attention to the demographic implications of translocation as a potential conservation tool for small, isolated populations of species such as the northern muriqui in which female dispersal and male philopatry are typical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen Science (CS) is a process that engages members of the public in the collection and interpretation of scientific data in collaboration with scientists. It is especially useful for monitoring biodiversity over extended periods and at larger scales than most researchers can cover themselves. Here we present preliminary insights from a project initiated to evaluate the potential of a systematic CS program to monitor primates in small fragments of Atlantic Forest surrounding the Reserva Particular de Patrimônio Natural Feliciano Miguel Abdala (RPPN-FMA), in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This region was near the center of a severe yellow fever outbreak that peaked in late 2016 and early 2017, which coincided with steep declines in the known populations of the four species of primates that occur sympatrically in the RPPN-FMA (Alouatta guariba, Brachyteles hypoxanthus, Callithrix flaviceps, and Sapajus nigritus). Nothing, however, was known about the status of these species in the surrounding forest fragments. To gain rapid insights into the status of primates in these fragments and at the same time to assess the feasibility of developing a more systematic CS program in the future, we visited 54 landowners within 6 km of the reserve, 49 of which agreed to participate by sharing their perceptions of primate presence or absence before and after the yellow fever outbreak, and in the subsequent potential recovery period. Consistent with the decline in primate populations in the RPPN-FMA and another region in southeastern Brazil, participants residing around the reserve perceived the greatest declines in populations of Alouatta and Callithrix, followed by Sapajus, with a comparatively small decline in Brachyteles. Participant perceptions, reflected in their monthly reports from June 2018 to June 2020, suggest that the presence of Alouatta (detected significantly more often by auditory cues) and Callithrix returned to pre-yellow fever levels, while that of Sapajus (detected more by visual cues) exceeded pre-yellow fever levels. The only species with seasonal variation in participant perceptions was Callithrix. Although systematic censuses are needed to calibrate participant reports, there is clear potential for the development of a more comprehensive CS program as part of conservation efforts to monitor primate species in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]