Cacajao melanocephalus is known from blackwater rivers in the northern, interior Amazonian basin. The two subspecies (C. m. melanocephalus and C. m. ouakary) together occupy a distribution throughout southeastern Colombia, southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil. Cacajao melanocephalus inhabits the forested region surrounding the Rio Vaupes, the Rio Japuro, as well as the Rio Negro river - with this geographic feature recently becoming the marker of the boundary between the subspecies (see Boubli, 1993). Cacajao m. melanocephalus occurs to the north and east of the Rio Negro, while C. m. ouakary is found to the south and west. This boundary is less clear in Brazil. (Barnett, 2005; Boubli, 1993)

 

Biogeographic Regions: Neotropical; Neotropical :: Native