Letter: Name that monkey

From George Monbiot

You report that there are no clues as to the nature of the uacari – the bald, red-faced, angry-looking Amazonian monkey which surely ranks among the ugliest creatures on Earth – in either its common name or its scientific name, Cacajao (22 April, p 52). The tribes whose words these were are now extinct, and the meanings died with them.

But there is a third name for this animal, used widely in the Amazon, whose derivation may be less obscure. They call it o macaco ingles, which translates as “the English monkey”.

The editor replies:

• That name refers, however, to only one of the two species of uacari, the one with the bald red head, Cacajao calvus (a picture of a sub-species of which accompanied the piece). The one for which the terms “cacajao” and “uacari” were coined by Humboldt and by Spix is the black-headed uacari, Cacajao melanocephalus, which is not bald and does not have a red face.

Oxford, UK