Good knowledge of a species’ geographic distribution is key to the reliable assessment of its conservation status (IUCN, 2008) and the planning of conservation strategies (Primack and Rodrigues, 2001). The records presented here not only extend the known range of B. torquatus northwards by a number of hundred kilometers, but also suggest that it may still be present in at least some of the Atlantic Forest fragments that remain in the intervening area in Bahia and Sergipe. It is also possible that the species may still range as far north as the São Francisco River, although there is less forest cover and fewer fragments in Sergipe further north and east of Fazenda Trapsa (Jerusalinsky et al., 2006). Overall, the main hindrance to the identification of B. torquatus populations, such as those reported here, may simply have been the lack of expectations based on the available literature (e.g. Eisenberg and Redford, 2000; Prado, 2001; Fonseca and Aguiar, 2004; Chiarello, 2008). In the light of the evidence presented here, it is clear that such expectations need to be revised, and it would seem recommendable to include the identification of sites at which B. torquatus may occur in the aims of any survey conducted within the Northern Atlantic Forest. The species could easily be included in the standardized interviews used to survey primate populations (Jerusalinsky et al., 2006) or even in the objectives of ecological studies. |