The Limits of Resilience: A 40-year perspective on the future of the world’s most peaceful primate
Field data on the behavioral ecology and demography of wild primate populations are essential to informed conservation and management programs for endangered species. However, they are not enough to save our primates. Here, I share insights gained from more than four decades of research with one of the last remaining populations of the Critically Endangered Northern Muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) in a small fragment of the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. Among the most important of these is that muriquis live in remarkably peaceful, egalitarian societies, and that males stay in their natal groups for life while females disperse prior to puberty. These distinctive behavioral features are highly resilient, despite variable ecological and demographic conditions over time and space. Distinguishing such conservative behavioral patterns from more flexible ones represents a new priority for conservation and management action plans for muriquis and other endangered primates.