Costa Rica's Mono Titi Squirrel MonkeyCosta Rica's Mono Titi Squirrel MonkeyFifty years ago, the Pacific coast of Central America was a wild coastal jungle. The tiny Mono Titi monkey ranged freely from Panama through Costa Rica. Today, the Mono Titi is restricted to two small, disconnected scraps of habitat, Manuel Antonio National Park, north of Playa El Ray, and Corcovado National Park to the south. Every day, the Mono Titi's habitat diminishes, and so do the Mono Titi.

During the middle of the last century, Costa Rica emerged from third world impoverishment through a national agricultural development program. Devastating deforestation made way for alien crops like bananas, rice and cattle. Developers imported their visions of a tropical paradise by erecting modern resorts surrounded by coconut palms, also non-indigenous to Costa Rica and unsupportive to native wildlife.

Thus, the Mono Titi are left with nowhere to go. They are trapped in two small islands of habitat amidst an inhospitable landscape, no biological corridor connecting them and no hope for survival without substantial intervention.

Saving the Mono Titi

Saving Mono Titi Costa RicaMono Titi monkeys are among the smallest primates on Earth. Weighing in at 22 ounces or so, they are unabashedly adorable and socially egalitarian. Both males and females nurture their young, and they exhibit no social class or hierarchical order. It is believed that only 1,700 Mono Titi monkeys remain. Restoring their habitat and creating a biological corridor between habitats is critical to their survival.

The Eco Preservation Society is poised to address the complexity and magnitude of this project. With proper funding, Mono Titi's habitat can be expanded and restored and we can save this tiny primate from extinction.

Habitat Restoration

Saving Mono TitiSaving the Mono Titi requires the restoration of a biological corridor between the Naranjo River and the Savegre River. Not an easy undertaking. The project requires removing and reversing the negative effects of non-native plants, such as deep-rooted grasses, sea almond and coconut palms. Then natural mangrove colonies must be re-established, using native varieties of mangrove, ferns and other salt-tolerant species. Ultimately, a biological corridor connecting the two separate Mono Titi habits would spare the monkeys from extinction and provide additional habitat for other indigenous Costa Rican animals.

Sufficient funding from donors, partners and eco-tourists will allow the Eco Preservation Society to restore habitat and hope to the Mono Titi monkeys.

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