Spider Monkey Sleeping Sites: Use and Availability

The behavior of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) at sleeping sites and the characteristics of these sites were studied in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica. The spider monkeys tended to congregate just prior to dusk at a number of sleeping sites which were repeatedly used (81.6%), but occasionally they slept in trees which were only used once (18.4%). All of the regularly used sleeping trees were not used concurrently, but rather, there was a rotation between sites. In general, males were not encountered at regularly used sleeping sites as often as other agelsex classes, and when they were in all male subgroups, they did not sleep in repeatedly used sites. The trees used as regular sleeping sites tended to be large, but such trees were common in the group’s home range. The size of the subgroups attending repeatedly used sleeping trees was large when food was abundant and small when food was scarce. It is suggested that this relationship reflects that the costs of travelling to the sleeping site would be more easily recovered when food was abundant than when food was scarce.