White-bellied spider monkey  (Ateles belzebuth)

The most serious threats facing this spider monkey are hunting and deforestation for agriculture and for logging (1).

The white-bellied spider monkey occurs in a number of protected areas in Colombia (La Macarena, Tinigua and Picachos) but there has been extensive human colonisation around these parks and so there is a need for hunting to be controlled in these areas. Unfortunately, the presence of insurgents in some areas complicates park management (6). There is a substantial subpopulation of this species in Colombia between the Rios Caguan and Yari. This area is, at the present time, relatively isolated, but developments that may enable colonists to move into the area will quickly endanger this subpopulation (6).