Primates in Peril

Ecuadorian Brown-headed Spider Monkey
Ateles fusciceps fusciceps Gray, 1866
Ecuador, Colombia
(2012, 2014)
Diego G. Tirira, Alba Lucia Morales-Jiménez & Paola Moscoso-R.
Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey(Ateles fusciceps fusciceps)
(Illustrations: Stephen D. Nash)
Ateles fusciceps lives in Central and South America, from
southeast Panama to Ecuador, west of the Andes along
the Chocó Eco-region. It is a diurnal species that inhabits
mostly evergreen humid tropical and subtropical
forests. The subspecies Ateles fusciceps fusciceps inhabits
the Pacific Coast of Ecuador and possibly southern
Colombia, in an altitudinal range of 100 to 1,800 m
above sea level. The subspecies is distributed in Ecuador
from the northwestern Andes Mountain Range, in
Esmeraldas Province to the northwest of Pichincha and
Santo Domingo Provinces, extending to the western
borders of Imbabura and Carchi Provinces (Tirira et al.
2011).
Ateles fusciceps fusciceps mainly inhabits large continuous
forest patches in primary or secondary forest and prefers
the highest levels of the canopy. Its presence in certain
localities may be due to suitable habitat conditions such
as continuous canopy cover and high abundance of
large and tall trees. The species lives in groups of up to
35 individuals. The size of subgroups varies from 1 to
10 individuals (Gavilánez-Endara 2006; Estévez-Noboa
2009; Cueva and Pozo 2010; Moscoso 2010). Its diet
comprises mainly ripe fruits; this is supplemented with
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leaves, flowers, seeds, aerial roots, invertebrates, fungi,
decaying wood, mud and termitaria.
A. f. fusciceps is classified as Critically Endangered on
the IUCN Red list (Cuarón et al. 2008) and in the Red
Book of Mammals of Ecuador (Tirira et al. 2011), because
of its restricted distribution and the small size of natural
populations. Extensive and ongoing deforestation and
hunting are the main threats for the species in Ecuador;
destruction of the humid tropical and subtropical
rainforest in western Ecuador has surpassed 80% of
its original area (MAE, 2012). Tirira (2004) presented
information on the historical and current distribution
of the subspecies, reporting several localities where it
is locally extinct, including the type locality (Hacienda
Chinipamba, west of Ibarra, Intag Valley, Imbabura
Province), the whole central coast of Ecuador, and
the surroundings of the Cayapas, San Miguel, Ónzole
and Santiago Rivers, in the Esmeraldas Province.
Nevertheless, in some localities such as Playa de Oro (in
Esmeraldas Province) where conditions have improved
(e.g., hunting has ceased), populations of this subspecies
are recovering (Moscoso 2010). Currently, A. f. fusciceps
is concentrated in the interior part of Esmeraldas