Movement ecology and conservation of capuchin monkeys in pine plantation landscapes

Abstract

Pine plantations significantly alter wildlife spatial ecology, yet some arboreal mammals, particularly primates,persist in these landscapes. Some primates may bark-strip pines, generating conflicts with producers, furtherthreatening their populations. Black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus), endemic to the Atlantic Forest, inhabitboth native forests and plantation-dominated landscapes. Here we studied the effect of pine plantations onmovement and space use pattern of capuchins. Using data from 2008 to 2024, we applied Hidden Markov Modelsand Auto-correlated Kernel Density Estimators to study movements and space use of 11 capuchin groups innortheastern Argentina, comparing pine plantations and protected forests. Capuchins in plantations traveledlonger daily distances. In plantations, stationary movement state, linked to resting and feeding, were morefrequent in forest fragments, while rapid directional movements prevailed in pine stands. Stationary movementsincreased in pine stands during peak bark-stripping periods. Home ranges in plantations nearly tripled those inprotected forests. Core areas in plantation landscapes were highly concentrated in native forest fragments.Despite fragments constituting only 22 % of the plantation landscape, they concentrated 95 % of sleeping sites,shaping capuchins´ daily movements. Resource scarcity and fragmentation increase capuchins´ daily trajectories,home ranges, and core areas, likely reducing carrying capacity. Preserving forest fragments and ensuring theirconnectivity is essential to maintaining habitat quality for primates in plantation landscapes. Movement ecologyinsights from capuchins in pine plantations are key for conservation planning with the aim of developingprimate-friendly production landscapes, and mitigating conflicts between primates and foresters.