Spider monkey

Abstract: Movements of a wild night monkey (Aotus trivirgatus)- Overview of the Mesoamerican Primate Fauna, Primate Studies, and Conservation Concerns- Taxonomy and Biogeography- Introduction: Taxonomy and Biogeography- Taxonomy and Distributions of Mesoamerican Primates- The Biogeographic History of Mesoamerican Primates- Population Responses to Disturbance- Introduction: Population Responses to Disturbance- Demographic Features of Alouatta pigra Populations in Extensive and Fragmented Forests- Population Structure of Black Howlers (Alouatta pigra) in Southern Belize and Responses to Hurricane Iris- The Effects of Forest Fragment Age, Isolation, Size, Habitat Type, and Water Availability on Monkey Density in a Tropical Dry Forest- Forest Fragmentation and Its Effects on the Feeding Ecology of Black Howlers (Alouatta pigra) from the Calakmul Area in Mexico- Intestinal Parasitic Infections in Alouatta Pigra in Tropical Rainforest in Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico: Implications for Behavioral Ecology and Conservation- Behavior and Ecology- Introduction: Behavior and Ecology- Average Body Weight for Mantled Howling Monkeys (Alouatta palliata): An Assessment of Average Values and Variability- An Exploratory Analysis of Developmental Plasticity in Costa Rican Mantled Howler Monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata)- Travel Patterns and Spatial Mapping in Nicaraguan Mantled Howler Monkeys (Alouatta palliata)- Use of Landmark Cues to Locate Feeding Sites in Wild Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus): An Experimental Field Study- Leap, Bridge, or Ride? Ontogenetic Influences on Positional Behavior in Cebus and Alouatta- Food Choice by Juvenile Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in a Tropical Dry Forest- Why Be Alpha Male? Dominance and Reproductive Success in Wild White-Faced Capuchins (Cebus capucinus)- Post-conceptive Mating in White-Faced Capuchins, Cebus capucinus: Hormonal and Sociosexual Patterns of Cycling, Noncycling, and Pregnant Females- Conservation and Management Policies- Introduction: Conservation and Management Policies- Growth of a Reintroduced Spider Monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) Population on Barro Colorado Island, Panama- Primates in Agroecosystems: Conservation Value of Some Agricultural Practices in Mesoamerican Landscapes- Primate Populations in the Protected Forests of Maya Archaeological Sites in Southern Mexico and Guatemala- Mapping Primate Populations in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico: A First Assessment- A Metapopulation Approach to Conserving the Howler Monkey in a Highly Fragmented Landscape in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico- Quantifying Fragmentation of Black Howler (Alouatta pigra) Habitat after Hurricane Iris (2001), Southern Belize- Synopsis and Perspectives- New Perspectives in the Study of Mesoamerican Primates: Concluding Comments and Conservation Priorities

Abstract: The modern taxonomy of the Infraorder Platyrrhini is deeply influenced by the numerous publications of the late Philip Hershkovitz (1909–1997). This has meant that in many aspects platyrrhine taxonomy has been extraordinarily stable over the last two decades, while his work has at the same time provided the wherewithal for considerable refinement and adjustments. Hershkovitz laid the foundation for the modern taxonomy of the New World primates first in his monumental treatise on the Families Callitrichidae and Callimiconidae (1977) (supplemented with revisions of the emperor tamarins, Saguinus imperator [1979] and black-mantle tamarins, S. nigricollis [1982]), and subsequently with a number of papers, results of his revisions of the systematics of most of the remaining extant platyrrhines that he lumped in a third family, the Cebidae: the saki monkeys Pithecia (1987a); the night monkeys, Aotus (1983); the squirrel monkeys, Saimiri (1984); the bearded sakis, Chiropotes (1985); the uacaris, Cacajao (1987b); and the titi monkeys, Callicebus (1988, 1990). Hershkovitz was working on the remaining genera for the second volume of his treatise, but his findings were never published. The foundations for the modern taxonomies of the capuchin monkeys (Cebus), howling monkeys (Alouatta), spider monkeys (Ateles), woolly monkeys (Lagothrix) and muriquis (Brachyteles) have had to depend, therefore, on studies such as those Kellogg and Goldman (1944) for the spider monkeys, Hershkovitz (1949) for Cebus in particular, Cabrera (1957) and Hill (1960, 1962) who covered all the platyrrhines, and Fooden (1963) for the woolly monkeys. It may well be that the legacy of Hershkovitz is the cause of there currently being more species and subspecies of primates in the New World than in Africa or Asia, providing as he did the capacity to compare findings with what is known, both in terms of the physiognomy of the primates under scrutiny and their supposed distributions. The latest taxonomies of the non-human primates indicate approximately

Abstract: Many wild primates occupy large home ranges and travel long distances each day. Navigating these ranges to find sufficient food presents a substantial cognitive challenge, but we are still far from understanding either how primates represent spatial information mentally or how they use this information to navigate under natural conditions. In the course of a long-term socioecological study, we investigated and compared the travel paths of sympatric spider monkeys (Ateles belzebuth) and woolly monkeys (Lagothrix poeppigii) in Amazonian Ecuador. During several field seasons spanning an 8-year period, we followed focal individuals or groups of both species continuously for periods of multiple days and mapped their travel paths in detail. We found that both primates typically traveled through their home ranges following repeatedly used paths, or "routes". Many of these routes were common to both species and were stable across study years. Several important routes appeared to be associated with distinct topographic features (e.g., ridgetops), which may constitute easily recognized landmarks useful for spatial navigation. The majority of all location records for both species fell along or near identified routes, as did most of the trees used for fruit feeding. Our results provide strong support for the idea that both woolly and spider monkey use route-based mental maps similar to those proposed by Poucet (Psychol Rev 100:163-182, 1993). We suggest that rather than remembering the specific locations of thousands of individual feeding trees and their phenological schedules, spider and woolly monkeys could nonetheless forage efficiently by committing to memory a series of route segments that, when followed, bring them into contact with many potential feeding sources for monitoring or visitation. Furthermore, because swallowed and defecated seeds are deposited in greater frequency along routes, the repeated use of particular travel paths over generations could profoundly influence the structure and composition of tropical forests, raising the intriguing possibility that these and other primate frugivores are active participants in constructing their own ecological niches. Building upon the insights of Byrne (Q J Exp Psychol 31:147-154, 1979, Normality and pathology in cognitive functions. Academic, London, pp 239-264, 1982) and Milton (The foraging strategy of howler monkeys: a study in primate economics. Columbia University Press, New York, 1980, On the move: how and why animals travel in groups. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 375-417, 2000), our results highlight the likely general importance of route-based travel in the memory and foraging strategies of nonhuman primates.