Mexico
Extreme heat: Howler monkeys fall dead from trees
The species is considered endangered. Now the heat is also causing problems for the howler monkeys
© Patrick_Gijsbers
It’s too hot: Dozens of howler monkeys have been found dead or dehydrated in Mexico. Activists are calling on the public to donate fruit for the animals.
Due to a heat wave with temperatures exceeding 45 degrees Celsius, temperatures in the southeast Mexico’s numerous howler monkeys have fallen dead or dehydrated from the trees. “We have to take care of the animals,” said Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday. He will therefore ask the Ministry of the Environment to get involved.
78 howler monkeys have already fallen victim to the heat
According to reports from environmental activists, 78 monkeys have already died in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas.
Rescue teams made up of biologists and veterinarians are traveling to Tabasco to provide the howler monkeys with water and food, especially fruit, according to the local civil defense. In the municipalities of Cunduacán and Comalcalco alone, a total of four howler monkeys, including a young one, were found dead.
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Activists asked the public for donations of fruit to care for the monkeys. Videos circulated on social media of howler monkeys in a veterinary practice where they were given water to drink from syringes. In Cunduacán, some of the specimens were taken to a medical rescue center on a baseball field.
The species is considered endangered
In addition to heat stroke and dehydration, the reasons for the death of howler monkeys include forest fires and the destruction of their natural habitat, which leads to water and food shortages, said the head of the environmental organization Cobius to the news site “Animal Político”.
The World Conservation Union IUCN lists the species as critically endangered and fears a further decline in the population.