MEXICO CITY – It's so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from trees.
At least 83 of the medium-sized primates known for his or her roaring calls have been found dead within the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Others were rescued by local residents, including five who were taken to a neighborhood vet who fought to avoid wasting them.
“They arrived in critical condition, with dehydration and fever,” said Dr. Sergio Valenzuela. “They were limp like rags. It was heat stroke.”
While Mexico's brutal heat wave since March has been linked to the deaths of at the least 26 people, veterinarians and rescuers say it has killed dozens, maybe even tons of, of howler monkeys.
In the town of Tecolutilla, Tabasco, the primary dead monkeys appeared on Friday when a volunteer fire and rescue team arrived with five of the animals behind a truck.
Howler monkeys are often quite intimidating, muscular and may grow as much as 60 centimeters tall, with tails just as long. They are equipped with large jaws and fearsome teeth and fangs. But most of all, they’re known for his or her lion-like roar, which doesn’t reflect their size.
“They (the volunteers) asked for help, they asked if I could examine some of the animals they had in their truck,” Valenzuela said Monday. “They said they didn't have any money and asked if I could do it for free.”
The vet puts ice on her limp little hands and feet and hooks her as much as IV fluids of electrolytes.
So far, the monkeys seem like on the mend. Once listless and straightforward to handle, they are actually in cages in Valenzuela's office. “They're recovering. They're aggressive… they're biting again,” he said, noting that this can be a healthy sign for the normally stealthy creatures.
Most aren’t so lucky. Wildlife biologist Gilberto Pozo counted about 83 of the dead or dying animals on the bottom under trees. The die-off began around May 5 and peaked over the weekend.
“They fell like apples from trees,” Pozo said. “They were severely dehydrated and died within minutes.” Already weakened, Pozo says falls from dozens of meters cause additional damage, often killing the monkeys.
Pozo attributes the deaths to a “synergy” of things, including intense heat, drought, wildfires and deforestation, that deprive the monkeys of water, shade and the fruits they eat.
For the people of the steamy, swampy, jungle-covered state of Tabasco, the howler monkey is a treasured, symbolic species; Locals say the monkeys tell them the time of day by howling at dawn and dusk.
Pozo said local people – whom he knows through his work with the group Biodiversity Conservation of The Usumacinta – have tried to assist the monkeys they see on their farms. But he notes that could possibly be a double-edged sword.
“They fell from the trees and people were moved and they went to help the animals, they provided water and fruit for them,” Pozo said. “They want to take care of them, especially the baby monkeys, and adopt them.”
“But no, the truth is that babies are very delicate, they cannot be in a house where there are dogs or cats because they carry pathogens that can be potentially fatal to howler monkeys,” he said, stressing that they need to be rehabilitated and released into the wild.
Pozo's group has arrange a special sanctuary for monkeys – it currently houses five monkeys, but birds and reptiles are also affected – and is attempting to assemble a team of specialised veterinarians to offer the primates the care they need.
The federal government belatedly acknowledged the issue on Monday, when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he had heard about it on social media. He congratulated Valenzuela on his efforts and said the federal government would attempt to support the work.
López Obrador acknowledged the warmth problem – “I've never felt it so bad” – but he also faces many human problems.
As of May 9, at the least nine cities in Mexico had set temperature records, with Ciudad Victoria within the border state of Tamaulipas reaching a blistering 117 F (47 C).
With below-average rainfall across much of the country thus far this 12 months, lakes and dams are drying up, water supplies are running low and authorities have needed to truck in water for everybody from hospitals to firefighters. Low water levels at dams have led to power outages in some parts of the country.
Consumers are also feeling the pressure. On Monday, the national supermarket chain OXXO – the biggest within the country – announced that it could limit the acquisition of ice cream to simply two or three bags per customer in some stores.
“In times of high temperatures, OXXO is taking measures to ensure product supplies to our customers,” parent company FEMSA said in an announcement. “Restrictions on the sale of packaged ice cream are intended to ensure that a larger number of customers can purchase this product.”
But for the monkeys it's not about comfort, but about life or death.
“This is a sentinel species,” Pozo said, referring to the canary-in-the-coal-mine effect through which one species can say so much about an ecosystem. “It tells us something about what’s happening with climate change.”
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