Space use by Black Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) in forest plantation landscapes of northeastern Argentina

ZÁRATE, V.; TORGE, I.; PETRACCHINI, S.; COLLI, L.; TUJAGUE, M. P.; DI BLANCO, Y.; AGOSTINI, I.; DI BITETTI, M. S.

Kuching

Congreso; Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the Malaysian Primatological Society; 2023

International Primatological society

Monoculture tree plantations have replaced millions of hectares of forests globally. The black capuchin monkey inhabits pine plantation landscapes and consumes the phloem of pines in southern Brazil and Argentina, damaging trees, which generates a conflict with timber producers. Home range use and movement ecology of this species has been studied in continuous forests, but not in productive landscapes. In 2022, we studied home range use and movements by six capuchin groups fitted with GPS-VHF collars in pine (Pinus taeda) plantations in the Atlantic Forest of Argentina. Using the kernel density estimation method, we estimated the size of their home ranges (95%) and core areas (50%). We used 2-state Hidden Markov Models to study the behavioral segmentation of their movements according to main vegetation types (plantations vs forest). Mean home range size estimates in this landscape is 452.92 ± 84.36 ha, 2.7 times larger than at nearby Iguazú National Park. Approximately 36% of the home ranges correspond to native forest and 64% to plantations, despite the latter representing 80.7% of the study area. Mean size of core areas is 25.23 ± 5.75 ha, of which >95% correspond to native forest. Capuchins exhibit more sinuous and less persistent movements in the more intensively used native forest fragments than in plantations, suggesting a differential use of these environments. Capuchins depend almost exclusively on the small native forest remnants in this landscape where they concentrate their foraging and feeding behavior. Knowing how black capuchins use these landscapes may help mitigate conflicts with producers.