Estado del conocimiento del género Aotus en Colombia: un siglo de exploración

Abstract

Night monkeys (genus Aotus) are the only primates in the Americas that are primarily nocturnal. Currently, 11 species are distributed in Panama and much of South America, and Colombia has the highest species richness. Despite having a large number of night monkey species, Colombia has relatively scarce information available about night monkeysthe genus Aotus. In this paper, we reviewed research on the genus Aotus carried out during the last 108 years in Colombia. We included scientific articles published in indexed journals and gray literature (unpublished undergraduate and graduate theses). We found 143 publications, including a large number of biomedical studies that were partly driven by unsuccessful attempts to develop vaccines against tropical diseases such as malaria. Aotus nancymaae and A. griseimembra, which are distributed in the Amazon and Caribbean regions, respectively, were the best studied species. Several studies have attempted to clarify the complex taxonomy of the genus, involving karyological, genetic and morphological approaches. In recent years, there has been an increase in ecological research of night monkeys, with studies focusing on population density, habitat use, conservation, pollination dynamics, and parasitology. Although 36% of these investigations were carried out on A. lemurinus, there are large gaps of information for this and the rest of Aotus species in the country. Ten studies focused on wildlife trafficking and the distribution of different species in Colombia. We identified a large information gap on physiological, molecular, and ethnobiological aspects of night monkeys, finding only one study in each of these topics. From this review, it is evident that there is a need to expand studies on behavior, ecology, molecular genetics, and traffic control of the genus Aotus. It is also necessary to generate more research for the less studied species in the country, such as A. vociferans, A. brumbacki, A. trivirgatus and A. jorgehernandezi. Research on these topics and species would allow us to understand the basic requirements of each species, allowing not only to fill these information gaps, but also to develop more effective conservation plans for the different species of the genus.