They are found only in the tropical dry forests of northern Colombia, an ecosystem that has been reduced to 8% of its original size, largely by cattle ranching and logging; their survival depends on the restoration of this landscape, which has been stripped bare.<\/p>\n
In the hills outside San Juan Nepomuceno, a team of former loggers, farmers, environmentalists and biologists are working to bring the forest back, and with it the monkeys that have become famed for their punk-like manes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody knew anything about the cotton-tops, they were not on anyone\u2019s agenda,\u201d says Rosamira Guillen, who leads Fundaci\u00f3n Proyecto Tit\u00ed, a conservation initiative that has spent decades protecting the species and rebuilding its forest home. \u201cBut they exist only here and are at great risk \u2013 we must protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cotton-tops are strikingly human-like, Guillen and Centena say. They live in tight family groups, normally of between five and seven individuals, communicate in a complex system of calls, and fiercely defend their territory. They also play a vital role in the ecosystem: dispersing seeds, pollinating flowers and keeping insect populations in check.<\/p>\n
\u201cTit\u00eds are a lot like us,\u201d says Centena, who is a member of the foundation\u2019s forest restoration and research team. \u201cThey teach you things. They look after their young. The only thing missing is that they don\u2019t speak Spanish.\u201d<\/p>\n The monkeys\u2019 numbers first plummeted in the 1960s and 70s, when tens of thousands were exported to the US for medical research. Later, their habitat was stripped back to only 720,000 hectares (1.8m acres) by clearance for traditional cattle ranching and agriculture. The illegal pet trade continues to take its toll, with poachers capturing and selling the tiny monkeys as exotic pets.<\/p>\n Franklin Castro, an environmental guard, has spent the past decade trying to stop the capture of tit\u00eds for the illicit market. \u201cI started the task 10 years ago,\u201d he says, sharing photos of the rescued animals. \u201cMore than 200 have passed through my hands. Traffickers pay people to catch them \u2013 60,000, 70,000, sometimes 100,000 pesos [between \u00a312 and \u00a320]. We find the tit\u00eds trembling and dehydrated. It\u2019s a terrible sight.\u201d<\/p>\n Fundaci\u00f3n Proyecto Tit\u00ed began with a handful of biologists and field assistants monitoring the monkeys, but after receiving a grant nearly a decade ago, the NGO was able to buy a patch of degraded land to begin restoring the remaining fragmented forest.<\/p>\n Marcelo Ortega, who leads the foundation\u2019s tree restoration work, says the first plot of land was barren. \u201cThere was nothing left,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The cotton-tops are starting to come into the new forest to forage. It\u2019s amazing to see Today, Fundaci\u00f3n Proyecto Tit\u00ed manages more than 13 plots across nearly 1,000 hectares and works with more than 100 farmers, providing them with plants to restore strips of their land. About 120,000 trees and shrubs have been planted to date, with 60,000 more planned next year.<\/p>\n The team plans its plot purchases to stitch isolated patches of forest back together, planting dense mixes of native species to form wildlife corridors. \u201cOur goal is to restore what once existed,\u201d says Ortega.<\/p>\n They are already seeing the results. \u201cThe cotton-tops are starting to come into the new forest to forage,\u201d says Guillen. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n They monitor the monkey populations by fitting a small transmitter \u2013 \u201ca little backpack\u201d \u2013 to the dominant male of each family group. It sends a signal to an antenna carried by field researchers as they follow them through the forest.<\/p>\n Centena is one of them. \u201cI\u2019m not a biologist, I\u2019m not a scholar, but I\u2019ve learned so much,\u201d he says. \u201cI was cutting trees down for 25 years. I\u2019ve been here since 2018, so I have about 10 more years to make up for the mistakes I made.\u201d<\/p>\n The next census is soon to be released, with the team estimating that the cotton-top population has remained stable \u2013 or grown \u2013 since the last count in 2012-13, when fewer than 7,500 were estimated.<\/p>\n The regrowth is important for other creatures too \u2013 rare turtles, black spider monkeys, toucans and tamanduas all call this land their home, and recently a puma was caught on camera for the first time in years. \u201cWhen you protect the forest for cotton-tops,\u201d Guillen says, \u201cyou protect it for everything else that lives there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nRosamira Guillen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n