Travel is a crucial function animals use to fulfill needs including food acquisition, reproduction, and finding sleeping sites. Given the cognitive demands of locating preferred resources both spatially and temporally across a landscape, studies on naturalistic travel paths may help us better understand the cognitive capacities and spatial memory of the species in question. In primates, a number of studies have tried to better understand cognitive abilities and spatial memory of preferred resources (e.g., do primates use landmarks, sensory gradients, and/or Euclidean maps, etc.) using metrics such as speed and path linearity. In this study, we use location data collected between 2014 and 2015 on wild woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii) from the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Amazonian Ecuador to examine if average velocity (i.e., speed) differs between areas of repeated use (e.g., core areas, defined by 50% isopleth of kernel density estimates) compared to less used areas of their home range. Similar to chimpanzees, woolly monkeys tended to move faster (average increase of 0.34 m/min) in less used areas of their home range, however, this difference was only significant for group D. The larger home range of group D, and the need to traverse greater distances to monitor important resources, may be one factor leading to this difference. Furthermore, the lack of significant findings among other groups may be due in part to the fission-fusion dynamics of woolly monkeys, creating greater amounts of spatio-temporal inter-individual variation in behavior, obfuscating results. Moving forward, we would like to look at resource value and path linearity to further understand woolly monkey spatial cognition. Through this research, I have been able to experience a rainforest ecosystem first-hand, learn how to work with and visualize large datasets, and meet other researchers, greatly assisting me in my academic, idealogic, and personal development.
Author: Nicholas Guetersloh and Kelsey Ellis, PhD
Advisor: Kelsey Ellis, Department of Anthropology
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