Grooming site preferences in black capuchin monkeys: Hygienic vs. social functions revisited.

When primates groom each other, they tend to concentrate on those parts of the body they cannot efficiently self-groom (i.e., not visually accessible), and prefer to intensify grooming in areas with high hair density, thus suggesting a hygienic function.

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics.

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae.

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics.

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown.

NEOTROPICAL XENARTHRANS: a data set of occurrence of xenarthran species in the Neotropics.

Xenarthrans-anteaters, sloths, and armadillos-have essential functions for ecosystem maintenance, such as insect control and nutrient cycling, playing key roles as ecosystem engineers. Because of habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting pressure, and conflicts with domestic dogs, these species have been threatened locally, regionally, or even across their full distribution ranges. The Neotropics harbor 21 species of armadillos, 10 anteaters, and 6 sloths.

ATLANTIC-PRIMATES: a dataset of communities and occurrences of primates in the Atlantic Forests of South America.

Primates play an important role in ecosystem functioning and offer critical insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and emerging infectious diseases. There are 26 primate species in the Atlantic Forests of South America, 19 of them endemic. We compiled a dataset of 5,472 georeferenced locations of 26 native and 1 introduced primate species, as hybrids in the genera Callithrix and Alouatta.

Effects of human impacts on habitat use, activity patterns and ecological relationships among medium and small felids of the Atlantic Forest.

Competition theory and niche theory suggest that two morphologically similar species may coexist by reducing the overlap of at least one dimension of their ecological niche. The medium and small Neotropical felids are an interesting group of carnivore species for studying intraguild competition. Due to differences in size it is expected that the larger ocelot exert strong interference competition on the smaller felids (southern tiger cat, margay and jaguarundi); which, in turn, may exert exploitative competition among themselves.

Experimental testing of reciprocal effects of nutrition and parasitism in wild black capuchin monkeys.

Nutritional stress may predispose individuals to infection, which in turn can have further detrimental effects on physical condition, thus creating an opportunity for reciprocal effects between nutrition and parasitism. Little experimental investigation has been conducted on this "vicious circle" hypothesis in wild animals, especially under natural conditions. We evaluated the reciprocal effects of nutritional status and parasitism using an experimental approach in two groups of wild black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus).

ATLANTIC-CAMTRAPS: a dataset of medium and large terrestrial mammal communities in the Atlantic Forest of South America.

Our understanding of mammal ecology has always been hindered by the difficulties of observing species in closed tropical forests. Camera trapping has become a major advance for monitoring terrestrial mammals in biodiversity rich ecosystems. Here we compiled one of the largest datasets of inventories of terrestrial mammal communities for the Neotropical region based on camera trapping studies.

Space Use and Movement of a Neotropical Top Predator: The Endangered Jaguar.

Accurately estimating home range and understanding movement behavior can provide important information on ecological processes. Advances in data collection and analysis have improved our ability to estimate home range and movement parameters, both of which have the potential to impact species conservation. Fitting continuous-time movement model to data and incorporating the autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE), we investigated range residency of forty-four jaguars fit with GPS collars across five biomes in Brazil and Argentina.

A biodiversity hotspot losing its top predator: The challenge of jaguar conservation in the Atlantic Forest of South America.

The jaguar is the top predator of the Atlantic Forest (AF), which is a highly threatened biodiversity hotspot that occurs in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. By combining data sets from 14 research groups across the region, we determine the population status of the jaguar and propose a spatial prioritization for conservation actions. About 85% of the jaguar's habitat in the AF has been lost and only 7% remains in good condition.

Publish (in English) or perish: The effect on citation rate of using languages other than English in scientific publications.

There is a tendency for non-native English scientists to publish exclusively in English, assuming that this will make their articles more visible and cited. We tested this hypothesis by comparing the effect of language on the number of citations of articles published in six natural sciences journals from five countries that publish papers in either English or other languages. We analyzed the effect of language (English vs non-English), paper length, and year of publication on the number of citations.

Using detection dogs and genetic analyses of scat to expand knowledge and assist felid conservation in Misiones, Argentina.

Many carnivores require large ranges to meet their ecological and energetic needs; however, anthropogenic changes threaten species and their habitats. Camera traps have been used to effectively collect data on carnivores in a variety of habitat types; however, a single survey effort is typically limited to species that have similar body size, habitat use and movement patterns, and individual identification of animals is not always possible. We evaluated whether scat detection dogs could effectively survey for 4 wide-ranging felids that vary in these characteristics: jaguars (Panthera onca), pumas (Puma concolor), ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) and oncillas (Leopardus tigrinus).

Impact of yellow fever outbreaks on two howler monkey species (Alouatta guariba clamitans and A. caraya) in Misiones, Argentina.

Two yellow fever outbreaks (YFOs) occurred in northeastern Argentina between November 2007 and October 2008, seriously affecting populations of two howler monkey species: the brown howler Alouatta guariba clamitans and the black howler Alouatta caraya. Both howlers live syntopically in El Piñalito Provincial Park, Misiones, where four groups (36 individuals) were studied since January 2005. The first dead howlers were found on January 20, 2008, in El Piñalito.

Are howler monkey species ecologically equivalent? Trophic niche overlap in syntopic Alouatta guariba clamitans and Alouatta caraya.

According to the principle of competitive exclusion, niche differentiation allows the stable coexistence of closely related species. We analyzed dietary profile and diversity, and dietary overlap between syntopic brown howlers (BR; Alouatta guariba clamitans) and black and gold howlers (BLG; A. caraya) in the Atlantic Forest of NE Argentina, with the objective of evaluating the degree of trophic niche overlap and potential interspecific competition for food.

Infant hybrids in a newly formed mixed-species group of howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba clamitans and Alouatta caraya) in northeastern Argentina.

Natural hybridisation between species has been reported in several primate taxa. In the Neotropics, there is increasing evidence of this phenomenon in howler monkeys (genus Alouatta) in contact zones between species. We describe the first known case of formation of a mixed-species group, and two cases of putative infant hybrids between the brown howler (Alouatta guariba clamitans) and the black howler (A.

Allonursing in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus nigritus): milk or pacifier?

Allonursing, the behaviour of females nursing offspring that are not their own, is relatively frequent in capuchin monkeys. Using focal-animal sampling and ad libitum observations we describe the pattern of allonursing in a wild group of tufted capuchins, Cebus nigritus (4 cohorts, 22 infants), at Iguazú National Park, north-eastern Argentina, and test several hypotheses on the adaptive value of allonursing. During 2,351 contact hours with the group (including 4,207 focal-animal samples totalizing 329 h focused on infants) we observed 39 allonursing bouts.