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Social species live in groups that vary in size and composition for many reasons, including resource availability, predation risk, and space restrictions. Their social interactions reflect intraspecific interactions, social bonding, rank, reproductive status, and relatedness. Titi monkeys (Callicebus, Cheracebus, and Plecturocebus) are a diverse group of pitheciid primates that are widely distributed throughout South America. Typically, they live in small groups composed of a breeding pair and their offspring. Although social structure and interactions have been studied in captive titi monkeys, there has been much less research on free-ranging groups. We used all occurrence sampling during a 16-month period to investigate group composition and within-group social interactions in five wild groups of black-fronted titi monkeys, Callicebus nigrifrons living in an Atlantic Forest fragment at the Caraça Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Unusually for the species, we found more than one adult male in three of our study groups (three adult males in one group and two in the other two groups). As reported for other titi monkeys, the breeding pair interacted more with each other than with any other group members. We also observed that breeding males interacted more with their offspring than breeding females did. Our results expand the existing literature on the social structure of titi monkeys, demonstrating their flexible social organization, providing further evidence of the breeding pair as the nucleus of the group and showing evidence for strong paternal care and stable attachments between breeding pairs in free-ranging C. nigrifrons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanisation is changing landscapes at an unprecedented rate, which consequently changes species compositions. We investigate problems faced by urban birds in a neotropical city by analysing the responses made to callouts by the environmental police of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil from 2002 to 2008. The environment police responded to two types of callouts: solicitation, where a person called to report an issue (n = 560); and reports of hurt or injured birds (n = 399). On average, three callouts per week were made relating to urban birds, with more than half concerning birds of prey. There were significantly more callouts in the wet season, coinciding with peak breeding times for most endemic Brazilian avifauna. We found no effect of caller gender, age or associated socioeconomic factors. Most callouts resulted in birds being forwarded on to Government-managed institute for processing wildlife (n = 584). Only a relatively small number of cases resulted in the birds being released into forested areas within the city (n = 152). Sick birds were sent to veterinary clinics (n = 136) and be released if successfully treated. We suggest how this information could be used to improve urban bird species management in neotropical cities. Our data evidences different guilds to have different relationships with people and birds of prey are less well-understood. The rise in callouts during breeding supports the need for better informed species management, and avoidance of a "one size fits all" approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Atlantic Forest of South America supports a rich terrestrial biodiversity but has been reduced to only a small extent of its original forest cover. It hosts a large number of endemic mammalian species but our knowledge of arboreal mammal ecology and conservation has been limited because of the challenges of observing arboreal species from ground level. Camera trapping has proven to be an effective tool in terrestrial mammal monitoring but the technique has rarely been used for arboreal species. For the first time in the Atlantic Forest, we obtained data on the arboreal mammal community using arboreal camera trapping, focusing on Caparaó National Park, Brazil. We placed 24 infrared camera traps in the forest canopy in seven areas within the Park, operating them continuously during January 2017–June 2019. During this period the camera traps accumulated 4,736 camera-days of footage and generated a total of 2,256 photographs and 30-s videos of vertebrates. The arboreal camera traps were able to detect arboreal mammals of a range of body sizes. The mammal assemblage comprised 15 identifiable species, including the Critically Endangered northern muriqui Brachyteles hypoxanthus and buffy-headed marmoset Callithrix flaviceps as well as other rare, nocturnal and inconspicuous species. We confirmed for the first time the occurrence of the thin-spined porcupine Chaetomys subspinosus in the Park. Species richness varied across survey areas and forest types. Our findings demonstrate the potential of arboreal camera trapping to inform conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic noise is a global pollutant and several studies have identified its impact on wildlife. This research shows how the noise produced by mining affects crickets' acoustic communication. Two passive acoustic monitoring devices (SMII) were installed in a forest fragment located at 500 m from the Brucutu Mine in Brazil. Another two SMII were installed distant 2500 from the mine. The equipment was configured to record from 17:00 to 05:00 h during seven days in April 2013. The authors analyzed the spectral characteristics of acoustic activity of three species of crickets (Anaxipha sp., Gryllus sp., and a Podoscirtinae species) before, during, and after the passing of mine trucks. For comparison the authors analyzed the acoustic characteristics for Anaxipha sp. and Gryllus sp. found in the distant site. Results showed a calling interruption for all the species during truck transit. Gryllus sp. emitted calls with higher maximum frequencies, average power, and larger bandwidth in the site close to the mine. Podoscirtinae species emitted calls with lower minimum frequencies, higher average power, and large bandwidth in the close site. The authors show that insect acoustic behavior varies between areas with different levels of noise. The disruption of this behavior may have negative consequences for their reproductive success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: How to house animals in captivity, so as to maximise their level of well-being, is one of the greatest practical challenges facing animal welfare scientists. Laboratory animal housing can, necessarily, be very restrictive in terms of the facilities being offered to the animal inhabitants due to experimental protocol restrictions. One method of trying to design better laboratory animal housing, in this case for marmosets (a commonly housed primate species), has been to model their housing on behavioural and other characteristics expressed by the species in the wild. Here, an alternative model has been proposed for the design of laboratory marmoset housing: the behaviour and ecology of urban marmosets. Urban marmosets may make a better model than wild marmosets, because they live in a human-designed and highly populated world; therefore, the decisions, choices and compromises that they make already take into account their interactions with the human world. For more than six years we have been studying the behaviour, ecology and other biological aspects of black-tufted marmosets (Callithrix penicillata), which live wild in the city of Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil). The behaviour and ecology of these urban marmosets have provided insights into animal husbandry and enclosure design, plus they have shown how important human–marmoset interactions can be for animal well-being. For example, our studies have shown that marmosets do not engage in human contact in the morning period; thus, suggesting, in terms of husbandry, that in laboratories at this is a time of day they should be given more ‘privacy’. In terms of enclosure design, data presented strongly suggest the need to provide natural vegetation within enclosures as even urban marmosets have obligate relationships with trees. In conclusion, the study of urban marmosets has provided a number of important insights into how the well-being of their laboratory counterparts could be improved. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Urban wildlife, frequently, comes into contact with human city dwellers and these interactions can be viewed positively or negatively by people. In the city of Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil) many city parks have groups of black-tufted marmosets (Callithrix penicillata), which interact with park visitors. In this study we observed 205 separate groups of people interacting with marmosets (using the ad libitum method) and interviewed 408 groups of park visitors, using a questionnaire, concerning their attitudes towards urban marmosets. Our data showed that in the afternoon period human–marmoset interactions were frequent (4/h), involved marmosets on tree substrates and could involve many people (maximum=48). In terms of interactions, the majority of interactions involved people taking photographs of the marmosets, trying to make physical contact with the marmosets and relatively few interactions involved feeding by the humans (<3%). Questionnaire data from interviews showed that marmosets were viewed very ‘positively’ by the public, and were perceived as having “friendly” behaviour (96%). While the majority of people did not feed marmosets (<3%) or admit to feeding marmosets (<6%), a significant number of people thought that the marmosets in the park were “starving” and that food should be offered by qualified professionals (38%). Our interviews with people who interacted or not with marmosets indicated that there were, apparently, no human visitors in the park who actively avoided the marmosets. The vast majority of the public considered the urban marmosets to be a source of “entertainment” for them and, if applicable, their children (98%). In conclusion, in this city park there was no perceptible conflict between urban marmosets and people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Zoos may play an important role in conservation when they maintain and breed large numbers of animals that are threatened with extinction. Bird conservation is in a privileged situation owing to the extensive biological information available about this class. Annual inventories produced by the "Sociedade de Zoológicos do Brasil" in the years 1981, 1990, 2000, and 2005 were analyzed. Variables, such as the number of zoos per geographic region; number of birds held; number of bird species in each IUCN threat category; number of exotic and native bird species; number of potentially breeding bird species; number of bird species in each order; and number of threatened bird species breeding, were analyzed. Brazilian zoos kept more than 350 bird species. The number of bird species and specimens held by the Brazilian Zoos increased from 1981 to 2000, but decreased in 2005. The same pattern was observed for the number of species in each IUCN threat category. Results showed that the potential of the Brazilian zoos in bird conservation needs to be enhanced because they maintain threatened species but do not implement systematic genetic, reproductive, or behavioral management protocols for most species., (© 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)