EL ARROZAL, Guatemala – A Yucatán black howler monkey, an endangered species, swung from a branch in its enclosure at the ARCAS wildlife rescue center in northern Guatemala. It was just days away from being released back into the wild in November 2023 along with two other black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) rescued from the illegal pet trade. They hadn’t spent much time in captivity. “As a general rule, the less time animals have been with humans outside of ARCAS, the greater their chance of being released,” said Alejandro Morales, a veterinarian and coordinator of animal health at the center run by ARCAS, the Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association. The ARCAS center sits at the southern edge of Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, a patchwork of national parks, other protected areas, community forest concessions and other multiuse areas, and a buffer zone. The NGO was created in 1989, just ahead of the reserve’s establishment in 1990. A group of golden-fronted woodpecker (Melanerpes aurifrons) being released in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Image by Santiago Bill/AP Images for The Humane Society of the United States. In another enclosure at the center, rambunctious white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) seized in poor health from wildlife traffickers have no chance of release in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Even if they could be rehabilitated for life in the wild, their habitat range is further south, in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador — not Guatemala. The illegal wildlife trade in Guatemala carries on with little clarity and little control…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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