Desdames, Chloe; Smith, Mick (Salt Lake Community College)
Faculty Advisor: Seaboch, Melissa (Salt Lake Community College, Anthropology)
Spider monkeys (genus Ateles) is one of the many endangered species in Costa Rica and they can now only be found in very few places due to deforestation. It is important for conservation reasons to know what forest types spider monkeys prefer. According to prior research in Surinam, Mexico, and Bolivia, Ateles prefers primary forests (undisturbed, high canopy) over secondary forests (degraded, lower canopy). Ateles are frugivores and their habitat preference depends highly on fruit availability. Fruit is more abundant in primary over secondary forests. This goal of this study was to determine whether spider monkeys in Costa Rica have a similar habitat preference. I hypothesize that spider monkeys will be found more often in high canopy primary forests compared to secondary forests. This research was conducted at La Selva Biological Station in northeastern Costa Rica. La Selva is a protected lowland tropical rainforest consisting of both primary forest (55%) and secondary forest in various stages of regeneration. I conducted a census of Ateles geoffroyi by walking established trails, with markers every 50 meters, in May 2019. Whenever a spider monkey was spotted, the trail name, nearest meter marker, and forest type were recorded. On a census of 9 trails, five Ateles groups were located, with four of the sightings being in primary forests. My hypothesis, that Ateles geoffroyi would be found in primary over secondary forests, was supported because 80% of the sightings were in primary forests. This is especially significant because, of the 20.5 kilometers censused, only 4.6 km censused (22%) were in primary forests with the remaining 15.9 km (78%) in secondary forests. This preference for primary forests agrees with prior studies on Ateles in other Neotropical forests. This highlights the importance of conserving primary forest for the well-being of spider monkeys.