Ateles paniscus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Atelidae, Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 484-549 : 539-540

16 .

Red-faced Black Spider Monkey

Ateles paniscus

French: Atéle noir / German: Rotgesicht-Klammeraffe / Spanish: Mono arana de cara roja Other common names: Guianan Spider Monkey, Red-faced Spider Monkey

Taxonomy. Simia paniscus Linnaeus, 1758 ,

South America, Brazil. Restricted by E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1803 to French Guiana.

The border between this species and A. belzebuth is the Rio Branco in Roraima State. Monotypic.

Distribution. The Guianas (E of the Essequibo River, but excluding the lowland coastal plains) and NE Brazil (N of the Rio Amazonas and E of the rios Negro and Branco); its occurrence W of the Essequibo and in Venezuela is doubtful.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 51-5-58 cm (males) and 42-66 cm (females), tail 72— 85-2 cm (males) and 64-93 cm (females); weight average 9-1 kg (males, n = 20) and 8-4 kg (females, n = 42). Male Red-faced Black Spider Monkeys are typically larger and more robust than females. Fur is long,silky, and glossy-black, although much sparser on the underside. The tail is thickly furred for two-thirds of its length and then tapering sharply toward its tip—a characteristic that distinguishes the Red-faced Black Spider Monkey from all other spider monkeys. Adults have a naked, pink or reddish face, with sometimes a few short, silvery or white hairs on the muzzle. Pointed tufts of hair protrude sideways from in front of each ear.

Habitat. Primary high forest; rarely in edge or degraded forest and Euterpe palm swamp. In Suriname, the Red-faced Black Spider Monkey is almost entirely restricted to the high forests of the interior and enters the coastal plain only in the western part of the country, although historical accounts suggest that populations may have ranged closer to the coast. In Suriname,it rarely enters river edge forest, which may be a response to increased hunting pressure along waterways. In Guyana,it also occurs mainly in high forest. To what degree Red-faced Black Spider Monkeys extend to the coastal region of French Guiana today is unknown, although sightings in coastal forests were made in the early 1900s. In Brazil, it occurs in lowland, submontane, and montane (Serra da Pacaraima) forest.

Food and Feeding. Like all spider monkeys, the Red-faced Black Spider Monkey is highly frugivorous and feeds largely on the mature, soft parts of a very wide variety of fruits, which comprise 80% or more ofits diet and are found mainly in the emergent trees and upper part of the forest canopy. It also eats young leaves and flowers (especially at times offruit shortage in the early dry season), young and mature seeds, floral buds, pseudobulbs, aerial roots, bark, decaying wood, fungi, honey, and on occasion small insects such as termites and caterpillars, Many fruits, even quite large ones, are swallowed whole, but in other cases, the outer layer is bitten off, and the aril or mesocarp is swallowed along with the seed or seeds. Dueto its method of feeding and subsequent defecation (endozoochory), the Red-faced Black Spider Monkey has been found to be a significant seed disperser for nearly 140 tree and liana species. Seeds of an additional ten species are dispersed by the monkeys carrying them off some distance before dropping them. Seeds of only about two dozen food species are ruined when eaten (seed predation).

Breeding. Although young individuals can be observed throughout the year, the Redfaced Black Spider Monkey has a clearly defined birth season in Suriname. Newborn infants are seen only in November—January, indicating that they are born at the end of the long dry season and during the short wet season. Nevertheless, the few data available from other areas indicate lack of a distinct breeding season. Young resemble adults in coloration. Lifespan in the wild may exceed 30 years.

Activity patterns. The Red-faced Black Spider Monkey is diurnal and arboreal, primarily an inhabitant of the upper forest canopy and emergent trees. It also enters the middle and lower canopy, but it is very rarely seen in the understory. The day typically includes two resting periods: 08:00-10:00 h and 12:00-14:30 h. More time is spent resting during the dry season when fruit is scarce. Feeding activity is highest for the first two hours of the morning and the last two hours before entering sleeping trees. Sleeping trees are alwaystall emergents, well free of a contiguous canopy, with a broad, open crown, either small-leaved,leafless, or in leaf flush, horizontally branched, and located strategically near feeding sites for the following days or, better still, in the next day’s feeding site.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Red-faced Black Spider Monkeyslive in groups of up to 20-30 individuals, but they are typically observed traveling, feeding, or resting in smaller subgroups and rarely seen all together. Within the home range, subgroups may travel 500-5000 m/day, depending on its size and composition, weather, season, and distribution of available food sources. During the dry season, individuals tend to travel less, especially when leaves become a more significant component of the diet. They appear to maintain discrete, non-overlapping home ranges of a few hundred hectares that are defended by males. In the Raleigh Falls-Voltzberg Reserve, Suriname, density of Red-faced Black Spider Monkeys was 8-2 ind/km?. Densities were 7-14 ind/ km? at Nouragues, French Guiana and 2-4-6-2 ind/km? at three sites in Guyana.

Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. The Red-faced Black Spider Monkey is widespread and common where not hunted for its meat, but locally extirpated or threatened by hunting and habitat loss in many areas. Habitat loss, although not as severe in the more northerly parts of its distribution, has been particularly notable in Brazil. Hunting remains a threat everywhere, especially French Guiana and even in protected areas. The Red-faced Black Spider Monkey is reported from or believed to occur in numerous and many large protected areas including Cabo Orange and Tumucumaque national parks in Brazil, Central Suriname Nature Reserve in Suriname, Kaw and Nouragues nature reserves and Guiana Amazonian Park in French Guiana, and Iwokrama Forest Reserve and Kaieteur National Park in Guyana.

Bibliography. Fleagle & Mittermeier (1980), Ford & Davis (1992), Froehlich et al. (1991), Guillotin et al. (1994), Heltne & Kunkel (1975), Husson (1957), Kellogg & Goldman (1944), Kessler (1998), Linares (1998), Mittermeier (1977, 1978), Mittermeier & Coimbra-Filho (1977), Mittermeier & van Roosmalen (1981, 1982), Mittermeier, Rylands & Boubli (2008), Muckenhirn et al. (1975), Peres (1994c), van Roosmalen (1985), van Roosmalen & Klein (1988), Roussilhon (1988), Sampaio et al. (1993), Simmen & Sabatier (1996), Smith (1996), Sussmann & Phillips-Conroy (1995), Youlatos (2002).

Figures

On following pages 14 Brown-headed Spıder Monkey (Ateles fuscıceps) 15 Black Spider Monkey (Areias chamekl. 16 Red-faced Black Spıder Monkey (Areias paniscus) 17 Whne-wmskered Spodev Monkey (Areias margmatus) 18 Whıtebellıed Spıdeı Monkey (Areias belzeburh), 19 Vanegated Spıder Monkey (Areias hybndus)

Distribution. The Guianas (E of the Essequibo River, but excluding the lowland coastal plains) and NE Brazil (N of the Rio Amazonas and E of the rios Negro and Branco); its occurrence W of the Essequibo and in Venezuela is doubtful.