Crested+Capuchin

Crested Capuchin ﻿ ( //Cebus robustus //)  media type="custom" key="7564945" width="109" height="109" align="right"


 * Capuchins belong to the cebid family of New World (western hemisphere) monkeys. These playful creatures are also very smart. ||
 * **__STATUS__:** Crested capuchins are listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). ||
 * **__HABITAT__:** These monkeys have a small range in east Brazil’s Atlantic forests, isolated in remnant forest patches. ||
 * **__DIET__:**They are omnivores, they have a very complex diet. They enjoy eating fruits, seeds, nuts, etc. they have a deep lower jaw and massive jaw muscles which allows it to eat more vegetation and large fruits. They pollinate flowers as they move around, tree to tree. ||
 * **__PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS__:** their average weight averages about 7 pounds; males are 1-2 pounds heavier than females. Adults measure 19-20 inches long with tails about 17 inches long. They have brown to red-brown fur with black hands, feet, and tail ends, and a medium sized patch of black hair on top of the head. Their typical, New World, faces feature rounded nostrils facing outward and a broader nasal septum than Old World monkeys. Only the last part is the fully furred tail it provides support on tree branches. Capuchins have some color vision, and good hearing and sense of smell. Capuchins have the most modern hands of any new world monkey, with functionally (but not fully) opposable thumbs, allowing them to grasp and manipulate objects. Their brains are well-developed and extremely large compared to their body weight; probably because they eat more protein than most other monkeys their size. ||
 * Listed as endangered in the year 2003 ||
 * This species has a restricted range in the Atlantic forest in the states of Bahia (southern), eastern Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, south of the Rio Jequitinhonha and north of the Rio Doce. They are hunted, and the forests within their range have been destroyed for coffee, eucalyptus and pine plantations (cotton in the 19th century), other agricultural crops, and for cattle pasture. ||
 * The estimated specie population is less than 10,000. ||
 * The Endangred Species Act was developed in 1973. It was one of many laws passed to protect species from extinction, caused by economic growth and development. ||

=The History of the Endangered Species Act= 1966 Inspired by the plight of the whooping crane, Congress passes the //Endangered Species Preservation Act//. The law authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to make a list of endangered domestic fish and wildlife and allows the Fish & Wildlife Service to spend up to $15 million per year to buy habitat for listed species. It also directs federal land agencies to preserve endangered species habitat on their lands "insofar as is practicable and consistent with their primary purpose." Other agencies were encouraged, but not required, to protect species. 1968 The Fish & Wildlife Service buys its first endangered species habitat: 2,300 acres in Florida for the National Key deer. 1969 Pressured by the growing movement to save the whales, Congress writes a new //Endangered Species Conservation Act//. The revised law allows the Secretary of the Interior to list foreign species and prohibits imports of products made from such species. 1970 The Pentagon, which uses sperm-whale oil in submarines, protests the listing of sperm whales as endangered, arguing that the species was not in any immediate danger of extinction. The Secretary of the Interior lists it anyway, but the fight convinces Interior officials that a new, stronger law is needed. 1973 With the support of the Nixon administration, Congress almost unanimously passes a completely rewritten Endangered Species Act. The new law distinguishes threatened from endangered species, allows listing of a species that is in danger in just part of its range, allows listing of plants and invertebrates, authorizes unlimited funds for species protection, and makes it illegal to kill, harm, or otherwise "take" a listed species. In effect, the law makes endangered species protection the highest priority of government. 1978 The Supreme Court rules that the Endangered Species Act requires that construction of Tellico Dam be halted. The arguments that $78 million had already been spent on the dam or that the endangered snail darter was only a tiny fish do not impress the court. The "plain intent" of the law, say six of the nine members, is to save all species "whatever the cost." 1978 Congress responds to the court ruling by creating the "god squad": a committee that could exempt selected species from protection. 1979 The first meeting of the god squad decides, with the Supreme Court, that the snail darter should take precedence over Tellico Dam. 1979 The Tennessee congressional delegation responds by slipping a rider into an appropriations bill exempting Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act. The rider narrowly passes. The Tennessee Valley Authority completes the dam, presumably extirpating the snail darter. 1980 More snail darters are found and the species turns out not to be in such danger after all. 1978 The Fish & Wildlife Service proposes to list a plant known as the San Diego mesa mint. One of the three known populations of this plant is in a planned subdivision that would be partly built with a Veterans Administration loan guarantee. 1979 The Veterans Administration informs the developer that, if the mint is listed, it would not be able to make the loan guarantee. A few days before the plant is protected, the developer bulldozes the plants. The loan guarantee goes through. 1982 Recognizing that the law created an unintentional incentive for private property owners to harm rare species, Congress amends the act to allow landowners to write habitat-conservation plans for listed species. When approved by the Fish & Wildlife Service, such plans would allow property owners to "take" endangered animals provided the species was protected elsewhere. 1990 The Fish & Wildlife Service lists the spotted owl as a threatened species. Over the next three years, the Endangered Species Act is, somewhat inaccurately, credited (or blamed) for a precipitous decline in national forest timber sales. Environmentalists respond by deluging the Department of the Interior with petitions for more species listings. 1994-1995 In response to continuing criticism that the law gives landowners incentives to harm wildlife habitat, the Clinton administration approves several new policies. One exempts small landowners from prosecution for harming threatened species habitat on residential properties or properties of five acres or less. A second exempts landowners whose conservation work attracts listed species to their property from prosecution should future activities harm or drive away those animals. Another policy guarantees that participants in a habitat conservation plan will suffer no further restrictions without compensation, even if the species continues to decline. 1995 In the "Sweet Home [Oregon] decision," the Supreme Court affirms, by a six-to-three vote, that alteration of a listed species' habitat is considered a "taking" of that species and can be regulated by the Fish & Wildlife Service. The court does not rule on whether such regulation requires compensation. 1995 Congress places a moratorium on further listings of species. This effectively denies whatever protection the act provides, including funding for habitat improvement, to many species that meet the legal definitions of "threatened" or "endangered" species. 1996 The Fish & Wildlife Service says that, in addition to 952 listed species, 139 are proposed for listing, 179 are candidates likely to need listing, and nearly 4,000 more are "species of concern": species that need monitoring but about which too little information is known to decide whether listing is needed

If I could propose 1 amendment to the endangered species act it would be harsher punishment on who ever kills any of these animals like bigger fines or, longer jail time sentences

[] [|www.iuchredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/4269710] [|www.brookfieldzoo.org/pgpages/pagegen.376.aspx] http://www.lazoo.org/animals/mammals/crestedcapuchin/