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Cacajao calvusred uakari

By Ali Felton-Church

Ge­o­graphic Range

Found in the upper Ama­zon­ian re­gion of west­ern Brazil, east­ern Peru and pos­si­bly in south­ern Colom­bia.

Habi­tat

Uakaris are found only in the trop­i­cal forests that are ei­ther con­stantly or sea­son­ally flooded, and mostly along small rivers and lakes within the for­est.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mem­bers of this cat-sized species of New World Mon­key have a head and body rang­ing be­tween 360-570 mm in length. Their short and some­what stumpy, non­pre­hen­sile tail adds just an extra 137-185 mm. They have a broad flat face and ex­tremely sep­a­rated nos­trils. Their teeth con­sist mainly of broad flat mo­lars and large ca­nines. They have naked, crim­son faces and ears with the rest of their body cov­ered in wispy hair. The var­i­ous sub-species dif­fer in the color and mark­ings of their fur, rang­ing from very dark to al­most white. Uakaris have long furry fin­gers and toes that lack claws.

  • Range mass
    2 to 3 kg
    4.41 to 6.61 lb
  • Range length
    360 to 570 mm
    14.17 to 22.44 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Uakaris are mostly monog­a­mous.

Most uakari fe­males begin re­pro­duc­ing at the age of three, whereas the males don't begin until the age of six. The fe­males give birth to sin­gle live young at in­ter­vals of about two years. The young are weaned be­tween 3 and 5 months dur­ing which pe­riod they begin to eat soft fruits.

  • Breeding interval
    Females give birth once every two years.
  • Average number of offspring
    1
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    182 days
    AnAge
  • Range weaning age
    3 to 5 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    3 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    1204 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    6 years

Fe­males nurse their young until they are be­tween 3 and 5 months old.

  • Parental Investment
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Uakaris are ac­tive and in­tel­li­gent pri­mates that live in large so­cial groups rang­ing pri­mar­ily be­tween 10-30, but some­times reach­ing nearly 100. De­spite this large size, uakaris split off into groups of 1-10 to do their for­ag­ing. They are di­ur­nal and at night climb into high thin branches to sleep. Uakaris are nor­mally quiet but tend to let out loud shrieks to com­mu­ni­cate and to mark their ter­ri­to­ries. They are play­ful pri­mates, es­pe­cially the young, who often en­gage in thier own "games".

Uakaris walk and run quadrupedally on the ground and along branches, but are also good at bound­ing and jump­ing bipedally.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

Uakaris feast pri­mar­ily on seeds of im­ma­ture fruits, ripe fruits, leaves, nec­tar, and a few in­sects in­clud­ing the cater­pil­lar.

Dur­ing the rainy sea­son, uakaris spend most of their time high in the trees eat­ing the fruits. In the dry sea­son, they come to the for­est floor to for­age for seedlings and fallen seeds.

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit
  • nectar

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Being closely re­lated to hu­mans, uakaris can be use­ful in study­ing pub­lic health. For ex­am­ple, they can pro­vide in­for­ma­tion on new vac­cines and dis­eases, such as di­a­betes, malaria, yel­low fever, AIDS, men­tal dis­or­ders and even some can­cers. Uakaris are also a valu­able provider of meat in Peru and a source of hunt­ing bait in Brazil.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

While there is no ob­vi­ous neg­a­tive ef­fect on hu­mans by the uakaris, huge amounts of money are used each year to help pre­serve their habi­tat.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Uakaris are on the verge of ex­tinc­tion due to sev­eral fac­tors, in­clud­ing the fact that they are hunted for food and for bait. More im­por­tant, they are rapidly los­ing their habi­tat due to the ac­tiv­i­ties of the tim­ber in­dus­try. Trop­i­cal rain­forests are the only areas in which uakaris can live, as is true of many other species en­dan­gered for the same rea­son. The WWF is cur­rently doing every­thing it can to pro­tect these areas.

Other Com­ments

The life span of the uakaris typ­i­cally ranges be­tween 15 and 20 years.

Con­trib­u­tors

Ali Fel­ton-Church (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

frugivore

an animal that mainly eats fruit

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

Ref­er­ences

Oc­to­ber 3, 1996. "ARKive: KngIn­dex" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 14, 1999 at http://​www.​arkive.​org.​uk/​species96/​White_​Uakari/​White_​Uakari.​html.

Alonso, A. No­vem­ber 30, 1994. Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 14, 1999 at http://​www-bcf.​usc.​edu/​~aalonso/Aca­d­e­mic/primate.​html.

Bobe, R. Spring 1998. "Antrho 314 Notes" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 13, 1999 at http://​webdancer.​sonoma.​edu/​people/​bobe/​quiz1notes.​html.

Lovett, S. April 5, 1998. "Apes and Mon­keys" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 13, 1999 at http://​www.​monkeymadness.​com/​apes_​monkeys/​bbm23.​htm.

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Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Primates primates
  • Family Pitheciidae titi monkeys, sakis, and uakaris
  • Genus Cacajao uakaris
  • Species Cacajao calvus red uakari