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Sunday 30 November 2008, San José, Costa Rica 

New Law Controls Spam Emails, Text Messaging and Telephone Cold Calling
New Internal Affairs Unit Will Investigate Corrupt Traffic Officials
Sun Shines On Limón
Volunteers Clean Up Downtown San José
Costa Ricans Full of Credit Card Debt
Congo and White Faced Monkeys Repopulate Santa Rosa National Park
San Ramon - La Fortuna Road Closed
 
Congo and White Faced Monkeys Repopulate Santa Rosa National Park
(Infocom) — According to scientific studies, every day more and more congo and white faced monkeys are repopulating the Santa Rosa National Park, located in the Guanacaste province.

Counts directed by the investigator Linda Fedigan, from the University of Calgary (Canada) indicate that, as years go by, there are more primate specimens living in the forests of this Guanacaste zone.

The white headed or white faced monkey is black in color except for the head and shoulders. The males can weigh between 2.3 and 3.5 kilograms, the females are a little smaller.

This primate is the only representative from the cebus genus in Central America. They are diurnal and live above the tree tops, even though they also can be seen foraging the ground of the forests or beaches looking for water and food.

The investigation indicated that while in 1972 they counted 85 congo monkeys and 300 white faced monkeys, these numbers have been constantly increasing to the point that last year they counted 620 congos and 740 white faced monkeys.

Para Fedigan says the increase is a direct consequence of the protection of the zone. Three species of monkeys live in the Santa Rosa National Park: the congos (also known as howlers), the white faced monkeys (or capuchin) and the spider monkeys (or colorados).

The census carried out by the scientist concentrated on the congo monkeys and the white faced monkeys. Even though the spider monkey also lives there, they travel so fast through the forest that it is difficult to count them using traditional methods, which consist of finding a group and then counting them.

Even though the white faced monkey is not in danger of being extinct, it is like the other species and is being threatened by deforestation and hunting. The majority of the primates of the new world are easy to domesticate, the reason that they are captured to be used as pets.

The female white faced monkeys have their young each year or two and the little one gets its independence to move around at about five or six months old and reaches sexual maturity at 3 years old.

The white faced monkey is omnivorous and because of this feeds on fruits, insects, worms, reptiles, and amphibians. It is one of the species that is distributed the most in the national territory; you can find them in almost all conservation areas in the Pacific coast as well as the Atlantic and is considered one of the most intelligent monkeys in the Occidental Hemisphere.

The congo monkey has a coloration that goes from bright black to reddish brown. They are easy to find in the forest because of their loud howling, their big head, and heavy and compact body.

They can reach 60 to 62 centimeters in size and can weigh from 7 to 11 kilograms. Its tail is long and prehensile with a bare pad at the lower part near the point. Its diet consists of a great variety of fruits and soft tree leaves. Their preferred leaves are from the higueron trees.
 
 

 

 

 
 

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