Scientists at the University of Sussex are working with local communities in Ecuador to help save one of the world’s rarest species of monkey - and the endangered rainforest where it lives.
The Brown-headed Spider Monkey (Ateles fusciceps) is “critically endangered”, which means that without urgent action to protect the 50 known breeding pairs still in the wild, the species could become extinct. The spider monkey - unusual in that it is exclusively a fruit-eater - is under threat because up to 80 per cent of the dense rainforest that it depends on for food has been destroyed.

Read the rest of this entry »