716 F. R. de Melo et al.


FIG. 1 (a) Historical distribution of the northern muriqui Brachyteles hypoxanthus, (b) location of the Muriqui House complex in Minas Gerais State, Brazil and Mato dos Luna in relation to Ibitipoca State Park, and (c) the forest included in the Muriqui House complex. Drone photo: Fabiano R. de Melo. (Readers of the printed journal are referred to the online article for a colour version of this figure.)


Northern muriquis typically live in multi-male, multi-


female groups in which males are philopatric and females disperse from their natal groups prior to the onset of pu- berty (Strier & Ziegler, 2000; Strier et al., 2015). This infor- mation, along with many other insights about the demographics, diet and feeding, ranging and social and reproductive behaviour of muriquis, comes from the long-term Muriqui Project of Caratinga (Strier, 2021). Whenever appropriate we used this knowledge about wild northern muriquis to inform our conservation manage- ment decisions. Females born in isolated populations that support only a


single social group either remain in their natal groups, where they risk breeding with close relatives, or disperse into other forest fragments, where they spend their lives alone (Tabacow et al., 2021). Solitary females have been translocated into other small populations, where they suc- cessfully reproduced with resident males (Mendes et al., 2005; Tabacow et al., 2021). We initially employed a similar approach in the Ibitipoca population.


In January 2017 we translocated a solitary female (ESM-FE) from a forest fragment in Ferros, Minas Gerais, 285 km north of the Mata dos Luna. We initially released the female into a 5 × 3 m, 5 m high, outdoor wire mesh en- closure constructed for this purpose in a clearing within the forested home range of the two males. The intention was to give her time to habituate to her new location and to permit observers to monitor her health and adaptation after the translocation. We also hoped that her presence would attract the males and subsequently facilitate her integration into their group. We released her 3 days later, but she did not interact


with the males, nor did they approach or follow her. She travelled instead to a distant patch of forest, where ob- servers were able to follow her movements until she disappeared 9 months later. It is possible that ESM-FE’s history of living alone for


at least the previous 2 years, combined with the absence of female associates for the two Ibitipoca males over at least 8 years, could have inhibited them from engaging in


Oryx, 2024, 58(6), 715–719 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605324000644


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