Critically Endangered
Southern muriqui
Brachyteles arachnoides
The southern muriqui is a muriqui (woolly spider monkey) species endemic to Brazil.
Appearance
The southern muriqui, B. Arachnoides, has a solid black face, distinguishing it from the northern species, B. Hypoxanthus, that has a black face mottled with pink.
Male muriquis have a head-body length of 55–78 cm (21.5–30.5 in), with a tail of 74–80 cm (29–31.5 in) and a body weight of 9.6–15 kg (21–33 lb).
Range and habitat
Southern muriquis are now found only in specific areas of the Atlantic rainforest located in Brazil, South America, more specifically they are found in the Brazilian states of Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais. The southern muriqui is a muriqui (woolly spider monkey) species endemic to Brazil.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Muriquis play a major role in seed dispersal and are known to provide complementary foraging opportunities for tapirs. Like chimpanzees, male southern muriquis are philopatric, while females immigrate to spread genetic diversity and avoid incestuous breeding with their relatives.
In crisis
This species is considered endangered because of habitat destruction, hunting pressures, and historic population declines. Only two captive populations of the southern muriqui exist. The wild population was estimated at 1,300 in 2005.
In 2005, scientists, zookeepers, NGOs, and many others discussed priorities and strategies to protect muriquis from extinction.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Southern muriqui is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Southern muriqui, Wikidata item Q1140418. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
