“There are very few (primate projects) that have run that long, continuously, and of that kind of quality in the world,” said American primatologist Russell Mittermeier, chief conservation officer at Re:wild, who introduced Strier to the muriquis. That’s about one-fifth of the critically endangered species’ overall population. Inside the 2,300-acre (950-hectare) Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve, a privately protected area where Strier has based her research program, the northern muriqui population has grown nearly fivefold, to 232. To Strier’s surprise, the northern muriqui turned out to be radically different from large primates studied by Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, the primatologists who made chimpanzees and mountain gorillas, respectively, globally famous emblems of conservation. Rampant deforestation had dramatically reduced and fragmented its habitat, creating isolated pockets of muriquis.
Scientists then knew almost nothing of the species, except that it was on the verge of extinction. “It was a complete and total sensory experience that appealed to my mind as a scientist, and to my mind as a person.” “I love everything about them they’re beautiful animals, they’re graceful, they even smell good, like cinnamon,” the American primatologist told The Associated Press on a recent field trip.
Strier immediately fell in love with the northern muriqui, dedicating her life to saving it and launching one of the world’s longest-running primate studies. Karen Strier started studying the biggest monkey in the Americas four decades ago, when there were just 50 of the animals left in this swath of the Atlantic forest, in southeastern Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. CARATINGA, Brazil (AP) - The emerald-green canopy shifts and rustles as a troop of willowy, golden-gray monkeys slides through a tropical ecosystem more threatened than the Amazon.
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