|Scientific Name:||Mico rondoni|
|Species Authority:||Ferrari, Sena, Schneider & Silva Jr., 2010|
Mico sp. nov.
|Taxonomic Notes:||Vivo (1985) was the first to alert the scientific community to this marmoset of the state of Rondônia, Brazil. Vivo (1985) provided a detailed description of the marmoset from Nova Brasília. He believed it to be Callithrix emiliae Thomas, 1920, being similar in pelage colour if just a little darker. It is certain that these Rondônia marmosets should be considered a new species, similar to, but distinct from, both emiliae and melanura, due to their range being widely separated from M. emiliae of southern Pará (Rylands et al. 1993, 2000, 2008; Ferrari et al. 1999). Nagamachi et al. (1996, 1997, 1999) analysed the karyotype, and Sena et al. (2002) carried out a phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase II gene sequences that substantiated the distinctiveness of Vivo’s Rondônia marmoset.|
|Red List Category & Criteria:||Vulnerable A2c ver 3.1|
|Assessor(s):||de Oliveira, M.M., Rylands, A.B., Ferrari, S.F. & Silva Jr., J.S.|
|Reviewer(s):||Mittermeier, R.A. & Rylands, A.B. (Primate Red List Authority)|
Listed as Vulnerable as there is reason to believe the species has declined by at least 30% over the past 18 years (three generations) due primarily to ongoing habitat loss.
|Range Description:||The range is reportedly delimited to the north and west by the Rios Mamoré-Madeira and Jiparaná, and to the south by the Serra dos Pacáas Novos, where it may be parapatric with M. melanura, which is “typically found in the savanna-like vegetation, rather than rain forest ecosystems, that predominate in southern Rondônia. Ferrari et al. (1995) failed to find any evidence of the occurrence of marmosets during surveys of the Guajará-Mirim State Park in west-central Rondônia. Likewise no marmosets were recorded at Pimenta Bueno on the upper Rio Jiparaná (Ferrari et al. 1996), although G. R. Monção has recorded this species there (pers. comm. to A. B. Rylands, February 2006). The range of this marmoset, as such, is evidently much smaller than previously thought.
Vivo (1985) argued that the Foz do Rio Castanho specimens, later described as Callithrix argentata marcai by Alperin (1993) were similar, and Vivo (1985) made no mention of the two other localities indicated by Hershkovitz (1977: 214b, mouth of the Rio Jiparaná, upper Rio Madeira; and 214c, Urupá, Rio Jiparaná), but his map would argue that they would also be “C. emiliae”. The discovery of M. nigriceps (Ferrari and Lopes 1992) means that the range of Vivo’s (1985) “C. emiliae” is restricted to the left bank of the Rio Jiparaná.
|Range Map:||Click here to open the map viewer and explore range.|
|Population:||This species is rare and its range evidently very patchy. The reasons for this are not known, but may be related to its sympatry with Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli (see Martins et al. 1987; Ferrari and Martins 1991; Ferrari 1993). Population densities are low when compared with those typical of other Amazonian marmosets.|
|Habitat and Ecology:||
This species is an inhabitant of Amazonian lowland rain forest.
Marmosets and tamarins are distinguished from the other monkeys of the New World by their small size, modified claws rather than nails on all digits except the big toe, the presence of two as opposed to three molar teeth in either side of each jaw, and by the occurrence of twin births. They eat fruits, flowers, nectar, plant exudates (gums, saps, latex) and animal prey (including frogs, snails, lizards, spiders and insects). Marmosets have morphological and behavioural adaptations for gouging trees trunks, branches and vines of certain species to stimulate the flow of gum, which they eat, and in some species form a notable component of the diet (Coimbra-Filho and Mittermeier 1976; Rylands 1984). They live in extended family groups of between four and 15 individuals. Generally, only one female per group breeds during a particular breeding season. The groups defend home ranges 10-40 ha, the size depending on availability and distribution of foods and second-growth patches.
Martins et al. (1987), Ferrari and Martins (1992), and Lopes and Ferrari (1994) studied some aspects of the ecology and behaviour of Mico rondoni, especially feeding behaviour.
Mico rondoni is syntopic with Weddell's Saddleback Tamarin, Saguinus fuscicollis weddelli, possibly as a result of a recent range extension of the saddleback tamarin to the east side of the Rio Madeira (Ferrari 1993; Lopes and Ferrari 1994). Although similar in size, the two species differ in their exploitation of gum: the marmoset gouges holes in tree trunks and branches, and vines, specializing on this resource, whereas its consumption the saddleback tamarin is opportunistic (Ferrari and Martins 1992). Lopes and Ferrari (1994) recorded the marmosets in association with the saddleback tamarins for 40% of their observations of the latter. Mico rondoni tends to forage and travel higher above the ground (10 m or higher) than the saddelback tamarin groups (Lopes and Ferrari 1994).
Adults mean 326.9 g (n=6 males and two females) (Ferrari and Martins 1992).
|Major Threat(s):||The major threat is ongoing habitat loss from the construction of the Samuel Hydroelectric dam, highway BR-364 (a corridor of deforestation in the southern Amazon) and development in its western range limits along the Rio Madeira, all of which resulted from the Polonoroeste Development Project of the 1980s. Two new hydroelectric dam projects have been approved for the upper Rio Madeira in Rondonia near the Bolivian border, which will inundate large areas of land and result in extensive forest loss.|
|Conservation Actions:||This species is recorded from the Samuel State Ecological Station, Rondônia (20,865 ha) (Martins et al. 1987).|
|Citation:||de Oliveira, M.M., Rylands, A.B., Ferrari, S.F. & Silva Jr., J.S. 2008. Mico rondoni. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 03 August 2015.|
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