Report of an attack on a howler monkey Alouatta sara by a group of collared peccaries Dicotyles tajacu at a mammal clay lick in Madre de Dios, Peru

[摘要] Howler monkeys Alouatta are almost exclusively arboreal. They will,however, occasionally descend to the forest floor to conduct geophagy atclay licks if these are present within their home range. They do this toincorporate certain minerals into their diet and/or for detoxificationpurposes. Clay licks are risky areas however, especially for arborealmammals, as visiting them requires the monkeys to leave the safety of the trees. This has beenconfirmed by observed predation attempts on howler monkeys by large felinesat clay licks. We report an additional risk for howler monkeys descending tothe forest floor that has not previously been considered, namelypotential attacks by collared peccaries Dicotyles tajacu . Camera traps were placed at threedifferent clay licks in the Taricaya Ecological Reserve, located in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon, to monitor the fauna within the reserve. On4 June 2017, the camera traps registered a lethal attack on ahowler monkey by a group of collared peccaries at one of the clay licks.

[学科分类] 计算机科学（综合）