This study describes the 35-year progression of activities in the Pontal do Paranapanema region of São Paulo State, Brazil. These activities began as a research project on the conservation ecology of the highly endangered Black Lion Tamarin and broadened into a landscape-scale restoration and conservation project involving the active participation of hundreds of landless families that colonized the region. Rather than viewing these colonists as a threat, a non-governmental organization arose to address their needs, providing training and support livelihoods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrimates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe DARC (Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines) gene encodes the DARC protein, which serves multiple roles in the immune system, as a binding site for the malarial parasites Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium knowlesi, a promiscuous chemokine receptor and a blood group antigen. Variation in DARC may play particularly significant roles in innate immunity, immunotolerance and pathogen entry in callitrichines, such as the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus). We compared amino acid sequences of DARC in the black lion tamarin (BLT) to non-human Haplorhine primates and Homo sapiens.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe black lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysopygus, is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of the interior of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. Since the discovery of the species, authors have described variations in the pelage of L. chrysopygus, but the nature of this variation has remained unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Primatol
November 2011
The critically endangered black-faced lion tamarin, Leontopithecus caissara, has a restricted geographical distribution consisting of small mainland and island populations, each with distinct habitats in coastal southeastern Brazil. Necessary conservation management actions require an assessment of whether differences in habitats are reflected in use of space by the species. We studied two tamarin groups on the mainland at São Paulo state between August 2005 and March 2007, and compared the results with data from Superagui Island.
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