Navigating in a Rainforest: Movement Patterns in a Neotropical Primate. The Black Howler Monkey

Navigating rainforests requires a continuous integration and processing of socio-ecological information. To incorporate such information into movement decisions, animals have evolved different cognitive mechanisms that enhance their spatial performance and foraging effort across heterogeneous landscapes. While sophisticated spatial skills are agued to underly flexible and efficient movement patterns, low spatial skills are argued to reflect movement patterns highly conservative and constrained. Here, I investigated different aspects of the navigational strategy of an arboreal, group-living and energy-minimizing Neotropical primate, the black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra). Specifically, I explored: (1) how black howler monkeys structure the space wherein they live (i.e., cognitive maps); (2) the influence of landscape features in their movement patterns; (3) their ability to navigate flexibly under varying conditions; and, (4) their ability to remember specific biologically meaningful events within their home range and adjust their movement decisions accordingly. From September 2016 through August 2017, I collected ranging and behavioural data from five groups at Palenque National Park, Mexico, where I marked all individual feeding trees (N = 931 trees) from the top ten preferred tree species. My findings first showed that black howlers navigated through routes more frequently than simulated random-walker agents. Second, frequently used routes were associated with potential monitoring of feeding trees and avoidance of energetically costly landscape features. Third, I did not find evidence of navigation flexibility under conditions of increased intragroup competition, knowledge or motivation. Instead, evidence of potential planning behaviour was observed in both locations where intergroup encounters had taken place and in fruit trees with increased phenological synchronicity. Ultimately, this data on the spatial strategies of black howler monkeys are set within the movement ecology framework, highlighting the importance of route network optimisation and the relationship between cognitive flexibility and memory.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• de Guinea, Miguel

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nekaris, Anna
• Nijman, Vincent
• Estrada, Alejandro

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/wbg3-2c24

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:b9f161f3-bd5c-4f32-8cd7-cafa6dbf11a5:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1