Birth of a wild black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) at an anthropogenic site

Abstract

We present the first description of a diurnal live birth of a wild black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra). The mother formed part of a group of five individuals inhabiting an anthropogenic setting in the tropical lowlands of southeast Mexico. A total of 7 h and 50 min passed from the rupture of the amniotic sac early in the day to the crowning of the infant from the birth canal. The delivery of the infant lasted ~ 3 min. We describe the event while referencing images and time points in a supplementary video recording. We place our findings in the context of the available reports of live births in the Alouatta genus, time of day, birth duration, and group activity budget on the day of the birth. While primates tend to give birth at night to reduce complications from group interactions, the observed birth took place during the day, which may have been possible due to an alteration in group time allocation. Our report provides in-depth details of the events of a birth and important information regarding the natural history of the black howler monkey.

A record of diurnal birth and placentophagia in an urban-dwelling female black and gold howler monkey (Alouatta caraya, Primates: Atelidae) in the City of Pilar, south-west Paraguay

“…The observed behaviours during the post-parturition phase of diurnal births in previous studies in Alouatta conformed with the reported events (Sekulic, 1982;Nisbett & Glander, 1996;Dias, 2005;Camarago & Ferrari, 2007;Peker et al 2009;Martins et al 2015;Cárdenas-Navarrete & Van Belle, 2023). These include cleaning of the neonate and self, delivery and consumption of the placenta, ingestion of the umbilical cord, and minimal interactions with other group members.…”

“…The temporal and spatial flexibility that has been previously observed in members of the genus Alouatta is suggested to be attributed to their energetically conservative ecology, as they are known to engage in prolonged diurnal resting periods (Sekulic, 1982;Nisbett & Glader, 1996;Dias, 2005;Carmargo & Ferrari, 2007;Peker et al, 2009;Martins et al, 2015;Cárdenas-Navarrete & Van Belle, 2023). Potentially minimising the pressure for nocturnal births, allowing day-time parturitions to occur.…”