Overview of the Mesoamerican Primate Fauna, Primate Studies, and Conservation Concerns

Abstract

Mesoamerican primates participate in important ways, as primary consumers, in the recycling of matter, nutrients and energy in the tropical ecosystem (Estrada and Coates-Estrada, 1993) and play an important role in the natural process of forest regeneration via the dispersal of seeds of a broad spectrum of plants (Chapman, 1988; Estrada and Coates-Estrada, 1984; Garber, 1986).