Lagothrix lagothricha (Humboldt, 1812)

Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2011, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 1: Primates, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2011 (351), pp. 1-81 : 22-25

Lagothrix lagothricha (Humboldt, 1812)

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL 5 11): Boca Río Yaquerana (FMNH 88827–88833), Nuevo San Juan (MUSM 11122–11124), Quebrada Esperanza (FMNH 88834).

UNVOUCHERED OBSERVATIONS: Actiamë ( Amanzo, 2006), Choncó ( Amanzo, 2006), Divisor ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006), Itia Tëbu ( Amanzo, 2006), Jenaro Herrera ( Aquino, 1978), Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo ( Puertas and Bodmer, 1993; Heymann and Aquino, 1994), Río Orosa ( Freese et al., 1982), Río Tapiche ( Bennett et al., 2001), Río Yavarí (left bank below Angamos; Salovaara et al., 2003), Río Yavarí-Mirím ( Salovaara et al., 2003), Tapiche ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006). (Note that some recent reports of woolly monkeys from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve identify the local species as Lagothrix poeppigii ; see below.)

IDENTIFICATION: The genus Lagothrix was last revised by Fooden (1963), who recognized four subspecies of L. lagothricha , of which three occur in lowland Amazonia: L. l. cana (E. Geoffroy, 1812) , L. l. lagothricha (Humboldt, 1812) , and L. l. poeppigii Schinz, 1844 . Fooden noted that these forms are distinguishable only by coat color, explicitly remarking the absence of morphometric and qualitative osteological differences among them. To date, not a shred of additional evidence has been provided to support the notion that cana , lagothricha , and poeppigii are valid species as recently proposed by Groves (2001, 2005). The species epithet of the Amazonian woolly monkey is often misspelled ‘‘ lagotricha, ’’ but the correct original spelling was validly fixed by Fooden (1963: 227) acting as first revisor in the sense of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature ( ICZN, 1999: Article 24).

The FMNH series from Boca Río Yaquerana and Quebrada Esperanza were examined by Fooden (1963), who identified the local form as Lagothrix lagothricha poeppigii . However, Matses hyponyms for woolly monkeys (see below) suggest that brownish ( poeppigii - like) and grayish ( cana -like) coat color phenotypes may coexist in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve, as they do along the Rio Juruá ( Peres, 1993a). External and craniodental measurements of adult vouchers that we examined are summarized in table 4. Most specimens are unaccompanied by weight data, but an adult female (MUSM 11123) from Nuevo San Juan weighed 5250 g, another (MUSM 11122) weighed 6600 g, and an adult male (MUSM 11124) from the same locality weighed 7500 g.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The woolly monkey is usually called poshto (not analyzable in Matses, but in neighboring Panoan languages the cognate means ‘‘[pot] belly.’’) Additionally, there are four archaic synonymous terms for woolly monkeys: çhuna (the pan-Panoan term, not analyzable), abukkid ‘‘one that is high up,’’ mëdante chued ‘‘one with big hands,’’ and maksinkid ‘‘woolly one.’’ Two to three subtypes (hyponyms) are usually recognized: poshto piu ‘‘red[-brown] woolly monkey,’’ poshto tanun ‘‘gray woolly monkey’’ (or poshto uşhu ‘‘white/light-colored woolly monkey’’) and poshto çhëşhë ‘‘black/ dark woolly monkey.’’ The poshto piu variety has a red-brown back; the poshto tanun variety has grayish hair, and the poshto çhëşhë variety has contrastingly black venter and insides of limbs. Not all Matses consider poshto çhëşhë to be a distinct class, observing that either red-brown or gray woolly monkeys can have black undersides. Unlike other cases of primate overdifferentiation discussed here, most Matses do not claim that there are additional differences, such as morphological features or habitat preferences, consistently associated with these different color variants. They do, however, assert that different subtypes of woolly monkey do not occur together in the same troop. The Matses do not have a general term for ‘‘monkey,’’ but woolly monkeys can be considered the prototypical monkey, and sometimes the word poshto is used generically to mean all game monkeys, or all large (noncallitrichine) monkeys in general.

All Matses eat woolly monkeys. It is a favorite food, and clearly the most appreciated primate game. Hunters cannot eat or touch the intestines of a woolly monkey (or any other monkey), lest they lose their marksmanship. As with any game species, the first time a hunter kills a woolly monkey, he cannot eat any of it, or he will lose his ability to kill woolly monkeys again. Young people (everyone under about 45 or 50) cannot eat the liver of woolly monkeys, lest their teeth fall out. Women must cook the intestines separately from the rest of the meat, and wash their hands thoroughly after touching the intestines in order to avoid contaminating the men’s food. Woolly monkey canines are the preferred teeth for making men’s tooth necklaces. Young woolly monkeys are often raised as pets.

Woolly monkeys were traditionally hunted with bow and arrow, but nowadays they are hunted mostly with shotguns. Before firearms, the mark of a top hunter was the ability to kill woolly monkeys, which are often high in the canopy and (because of their robust size) do not die unless hit in the right place. The most prestigious shot for a Matses hunter was to hit a woolly monkey in the eye with an arrow. For this reason, interviewees were all concerned with the fact that woolly monkeys are no longer killed with arrows. Furthermore, narrators expressed a common concern that woolly monkeys are now becoming scarce, especially in the vicinity of large permanent villages (traditionally, the Matses relocated their villages/ longhouses every three to seven years).

A single Matses hunter can kill up to four woolly monkeys when he encounters a troop. Hunters imitate woolly monkeys by inhaling while making a very loud ‘‘ choook ’’ call, with hands cupped around the mouth to amplify the sound. When they find partially eaten fruit on the ground, hunters call to see if any monkey responds. If the woolly monkeys have never been hunted, they respond and come. If they are a bit wary, they respond but do not come. And if they are very wary, they do not respond or come, thought they may respond to the imitated call of a brown capuchin monkey. According to the Matses, larger troops are more confident and therefore more likely to respond than smaller troops. Those troops that have not been hunted, especially larger troops, do not run off when they see hunters. Nonhunted animals may come to look at people, and may shake branches and defecate and urinate on them. Hunters prefer to kill large adult males, and will spend some time trying to get a clear shot at the largest male. After the first shot, the monkeys sometimes split up and run in different directions, and only later rejoin. After killing the first animal, the hunter will follow a second woolly monkey, preferably a male, until it gets tired and stops to rest in a place where the hunter can get a shot. If they stop in an inaccessible place, the hunter will shoo it by shaking vines until it moves on. If a wounded animal will not move to where a hunter can get off a second shot, he will climb the tree to finish it off. A hunter will also climb up to dislodge a dead animal that is stuck up in the tree. Sometimes a woolly monkey falls to the ground while fleeing, in which case it will run on the ground a bit and then climb back up. If they are shot in the eye with an arrow or in the chest with a shotgun they fall to the ground right away. If a second or third animal is killed quickly enough, the hunter may be able to hear another one moving through trees, and will leave the killed monkey and pursue another. (Impressively, hunters always remember where they killed each monkey and take little time to gather them up and pack them into a palm-leaf carrying pack.)

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: Woolly monkeys have prehensile tails that they use for hanging onto branches. As they walk across the tops of branches, they hold their tails rolled up behind them. They are grayish or red-brown, and have black faces. They have many fleas in their genital area. Woolly monkeys are good-looking, especially the babies. The babies have sparsely haired underparts when they are first born.

Woolly monkeys are found in upland forest as well as floodplain forest. They prefer upland forest far from rivers, but go to riverside forest when the water level is high. They are most common in areas with good, productive soil. They can be found in hilltop forest and forest on hilly slopes. They use all levels of the canopy, including very high up. They do not walk around on the ground, but may drop to the ground to hide among buttressed roots when an eagle is spotted. They drink water up in the trees, from bromeliads growing in crotches of trees. They tear off the fruiting structure of the bromeliads to get at the water. They do not frequent mineral licks.

Some woolly monkey troops are large, up to 30 or 40 animals; other troops are small; and occasionally a solitary woolly monkey is found. Only females carry the young, the older ones on their backs and the younger ones ventrally. They suckle their young in the same way that people do.

To sleep, woolly monkeys spread out in small groups among the branches of different trees. At dawn they yell ‘‘ choook ’’ to each other from where they slept and then gather together. Unlike spider monkeys, they do not sleep in a fixed spot, but wherever they are when night falls. They also spread out into subgroups to find fruit, and if they find it, they call and gather to feed together. Large groups feed together, with the babies screaming and making a lot of racket. When they finish the fruits in the tree, they move on without resting, jumping across the branches, to look for more fruits. They travel far, without following a set route, jumping across the branches, noisily rustling the branches, calling to each other, with the young screaming. In the afternoon, when they are full and tired, they rest lying on the branches. The male that is the leader of the troops rests in the lower branches, keeping an eye out for hunters.

Woolly monkeys eat mostly dicot tree and vine fruits. They eat all kinds of dicot fruits, their favorites are këku [ Couma macrocarpa (Apocynaceae) ], ichibin [ Matisia sp. and Eriotheca sp. (Bombacaceae) ], şhankuin [ Pourouma spp. (Moraceae) ], and piuşh bëchi [ Helicostylis tomentosa and H. elegans (Moraceae) ]. Other dicot fruits they eat regularly include: şhupud [ Spondias mombin (Anacardiaceae) ], poshton tonte [? Macoubea guianensis (Apocynaceae) ], machishte [ Rhigospira quadrangularis and? Mucoa duckei (Apocynaceae) ], mamuin [ Rheedia longifolia (Guttiferae) ], moste [ Hymenaea spp. (Leguminosae) ; this tree/fruit is also called poshton moste ‘‘one that is crunched by woolly monkeys’’], mannan tsipuis [ Inga spp. and? Pithecellobium (Leguminosae) ], tankada [ Parkia igneiflora , P. multijuga , and Pithecellobium auriculatum (Leguminosae) ], chichombid [ Mouriri spp. (Melastomataceae) ], shannëd [? Brosimum (Moraceae) ], bin [ Castilla (Moraceae) ], dadain [ Clarisia racemosa (Moraceae) ], chiwish [ Ficus spp. and Coussapoa spp. (Moraceae) ], kuşhu tëbin [ Naucleopsis mello-barretoi , and N. ternstroemiiflora (Moraceae) ], bata [ Pseudolmedia and Maquira spp. (Moraceae) ], poşhodi [ Passiflora nitida (Passifloraceae) ], mabis mabiskid [ Chrysophyllum prieurii (Sapotaceae) ], kose [ Manilkara bidentata (Sapotaceae) ], poshto kaçho neste [ Pouteria (Sapotaceae) ; this name means ‘‘woolly monkey back medicine’’], taëpa [undetermined], and nënë pada [an undetermined epiphyte with lianalike stems]. They infrequently eat diden këku [ Parahancornia peruviana (Apocynaceae) ], and buku [ Cecropia spp (Moraceae) ]. They drink the fluid inside unripe niste palm [ Iriartea deltoidea ] fruits. Other palm fruits they eat include isan [ Oenocarpus bataua ], and swamp palm [ Mauritia flexuosa ]. They do not feed heavily on swamp-palm fruits, unlike uakari and howler monkeys. They also eat invertebrates including crickets and spiders. They look for insect larvae in rotten wood and under bark. They eat some leaf buds.

Tables

TABLE 4 External and Craniodental Measurements (mm) of Lagothrix lagothricha from the Yavarí- Ucayali Interfluve

	Males a	Females b
HBL	462 (376–515) 5	457 (450–470) 4
LT	622 (585–665) 5	658 (635–675) 4
HF	154 (148–160) 5	156 (150–159) 4
Ear	31 (30–32) 5	31 (30–32) 4
CIL	93.3 (91.0–95.8) 4	88.9 (84.9–93.7) 3
OB	64.2 (60.4–68.6) 6	59.5 (56.1–61.9) 5
POC	47.4 (45.3–49.3) 6	47.4 (45.6–48.3) 5
ZB	75.1 (72.4–79.0) 5	66.1 (63.1–69.3) 5
BB	57.9 (56.1–59.7) 6	58.3 (56.6–60.2) 5
PPL	50.7 (46.9–54.6) 5	45.6 (44.2–47.0) 2
LMT	32.8 (31.1–34.6) 6	32.2 (30.7–33.2) 4
BM1	6.4 (6.1–6.6) 6	6.5 (6.2–6.9) 5
M1–M1	32.8 (31.2–34.2) 6	31.7 (30.0–32.6) 5
I2–I2	15.9 (15.6–16.3) 4	17.3 (16.5–18.5) 4

a Summary statistics (mean, observed range in parentheses, and sample size) for measurements of FMNH 88827, 88831–88834; MUSM 11124. External measurements of FMNH 88832 are obviously erroneous and were omitted from this tabulation.

b

Summary statistics (mean, observed range in parentheses, and sample size) for measurements of FMNH 88828–88830; MUSM 11122, 11123. Anomalous external measurements of MUSM 11124 were omitted from this tabulation.