Anthropogenic habitat disturbances are causing large-scale declines in animal abundance. For many species, information on the drivers of decline is lacking or restricted to single sites, despite calls for regional approaches. In this study, we determined the effect of different types of habitat disturbance (natural or anthropogenic) and ecological factors on Geoffroy’s spider monkey ( Ateles geoffroyi ) abundance using a regional approach. We selected this study species because of its high degree of social flexibility and its endangered status. We surveyed 4 sites in the Yucatan Peninsula and recorded the number of individual monkeys encountered along 72 line-transect segments each measuring 500 m. Habitat disturbance variables were obtained from open-access databases and included distance to roads, presence and number of hurricanes, forest loss, and presence of forest fires. Ecological factors were based on data collected during vegetation surveys and included number and basal area of feeding tree species, and canopy height. We ran generalized linear mixed models and found that monkey abundance was negatively affected by forest loss but positively affected by the basal area of feeding trees. We, therefore, suggest that a combination of anthropogenic and ecological factors affects spider monkey abundance. Spider monkey’s high degree of social flexibility may be a mechanism allowing them to adjust to changes in their environment when canopy connectivity is not lost. Our results provide policy and conservation decision makers with key information to develop regional conservation plans. Additionally, our methods can be used to identify the factors that affect the abundance of other mammal species.

中文翻译：

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人为栖息地干扰和食物供应影响濒危灵长类动物的数量：区域方法

人为栖息地的干扰正在导致动物数量的大规模下降。对于许多物种而言，尽管需要采取区域性方法，但缺乏或仅限于单一地点的有关下降驱动因素的信息。在这项研究中，我们使用区域方法确定了不同类型的栖息地干扰（自然或人为）和生态因素对 Geoffroy 蜘蛛猴（ Ateles geoffroyi ）丰度的影响。我们选择这个研究物种是因为它具有高度的社会灵活性和濒危状态。我们调查了尤卡坦半岛的 4 个地点，并记录了沿 72 条线状线段遇到的个体猴子的数量，每条线段均为 500 m。栖息地干扰变量是从开放访问数据库中获得的，包括到道路的距离、飓风的存在和数量、森林损失、和森林火灾的存在。生态因子基于植被调查期间收集的数据，包括取食树种的数量和基面积，以及冠层高度。我们运行了广义线性混合模型，发现猴子丰度受到森林损失的负面影响，但受到饲养树木的基础面积的积极影响。因此，我们认为人为因素和生态因素的结合会影响蜘蛛猴的丰度。蜘蛛猴的高度社交灵活性可能是一种机制，使它们能够在树冠连接不丢失的情况下适应环境的变化。我们的结果为政策和保护决策者提供了制定区域保护计划的关键信息。此外，