Chiropotes Israelita

The brown-backed bearded saki (''Chiropotes israelita'') is one of five species of bearded saki, a type of New World monkey. It is endemic to the Amazon in north-western Brazil (north of the Rio Negro and west of the Branco River) and southern Venezuela.Bonvicino, C. R., Boubli, J. P., Otazú, I. B., Almeida, F. C., Nascimento, F. F., Coura, J. R. and Seuánez, H. N. (2003). ''Morphologic, karyotypic, and molecular evidence of a new form of Chiropotes (primates, pitheciinae).'' American Journal of Primatology 61(3): 123-133. It is possible the correct scientific name for this species is ''C. chiropotes'', in which case the more easterly red-backed bearded saki would be named ''C. sagulatus''.Silva Jr., J. S. and Figueiredo, W. M. B. (2002). ''Revisão sistemática dos cuxiús, gênero Chiropotes Lesson, 1840 (Primates Pithecidae).'' Livro de Resumos do XO. Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Primatologia, Amazônia – A Última Fronteira: 21. Belém, Brazil. The IUCN lists the reddish-brown bearded saki (''C. sagulatus'') as a valid species, with ''C. israelita'' as a synonym, but also notes they might both be valid.

Taxonomy

Previously, this and all other dark-nosed bearded sakis were included as subspecies (or taxonomically insignificant variations) of '' C. satanas''. Based on molecular and morphological evidence, '' C. utahickae'', '' C. chiropotes'' and ''C. sagulatus'' were split from ''C. satanas'' in 2002. ''C. chiropotes'' and ''C. sagulatus'' were the only members of the genus found north of the Amazon River, with the former west of the Branco River (a major zoogeographic barrier) and the latter east. Supporting evidence for the basic split into four species of dark-nosed bearded sakis was published in 2003, though with one significant difference compared to the earlier study: They treated the population east of the Branco River as ''C. chiropotes'' (''C. sagulatus'' in the 2002 study) and west of the river as ''C. israelita'' (''C. chiropotes'' in the 2002 study). The taxonomy proposed in 2003 was followed in ''Mammal Species of the World'' in 2005. In the study in 2003, a direct comparison of ''C. israelita'' and the type specimen of ''C. chiropotes'' was not included, but it is assumed that bearded sakis in Venezuela are ''C. israelita'', while ''C. chiropotes'' is not present in that country, thereby matching what would be expected from a species pair separated by the Branco River. This is potentially problematic, as the type specimen of ''C. chiropotes'' is from Venezuela,Cabrera, A. (1961). ''Catálogo de los mamíferos de America del Sur.'' Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia 4: 309-732. which could leave ''israelita'' as a junior synonym of ''C. chiropotes'', thereby matching the taxonomy proposed in 2002. Due to this confusion, neither ''C. sagulatus'' nor ''C. israelita'' were recognized by the IUCN in 2008, which maintained all bearded sakis north of the Amazon River as ''C. chiropotes.'' However, regardless of the uncertainties over exactly what population the specific name ''chiropotes'' belongs to, it is clear that there are two distinct populations of bearded sakis north of the Amazon River: A reddish-backed from the Branco River and eastward, and a brown-backed from the Branco River and westward.

References

Further reading

* Peters, G.; T. Haus; and R. Hutterer (2014)
Neotropical primates from the Cologne Zoo in the collections of the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig: noteworthy specimens, taxonomic notes and general considerations.
Bonn zoological Bulletin 63 (2): 173–187.

{{Taxonbar, from=Q901749

bearded saki, brown-backed
Mammals of Brazil
Mammals of Venezuela
brown-backed bearded saki
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN
Taxa named by Johann Baptist von Spix