White Uakari

Cacajao calvus calvus


Habitat
Restricted to permanently or seasonally flooded forests, mostly along small rivers and lakes within the forest.

Geographical spread
Upper Amazonian region of western Brazil, eastern Peru and possibly southern Colombia.

Current population
Not known.

Status
Listed as endangered by the USDI and as vulnerable by the IUCN and are on appendix 1 of the CITES.

Size
Head and body length 360-570mm, tail length is 137-185mm.

Weight
2.3-3.5kg; males are larger than females.

Average life expectancy
A captive specimen lived for 20 years and 6 months (Jones 1982).

Normal diet
Feeds on seeds of immature fruits, ripe fruits, leaves, nectar and some insects especially caterpillars. Husks of hard fruits are cracked open with the canines.

Normal lifestyle
Lives in groups of 10 to at least 30, possibly up to 100 (Mittermeier and Coimbra-Filho 1977). These large groups often split into smaller groups of 1-10 that forage independently. These monkeys are diurnal and arboreal. They usually use the upper and middle levels of the forest but descend to the ground during the dry season to feed on seedlings and fallen seeds. At night they climb into large trees and sleep on the highest thin branches. Females begin producing young at 3 years and males by age 6. Females give birth to one young at a time at intervals of about 2 years.

Previous geographical range
Probably none, very restricted in distribution.

Reasons for decline
They are not often hunted at present but increased access to its range could lead to greater pressure by people and rapid extermination. Hunted for food in Peru and for bait in Brazil. They are a habitat specialist with a limited, fragmented distribution in habitat and are therefore particularly vulnerable to logging and hunting owing to accessibility by boat.

Current threats
Principal threat appears to be the growth of the timber industry (Ayres and Johns 1987).

Conservation projects
Not known.


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File last modified Thursday, October 3, 1996