From steps to home ranges: How habitat disturbance influences the movement drivers of an arboreal primate

The persistence of animal populations in anthropogenic landscapes often depends on adjusting their foraging and movement strategies to environmental changes that involve energetic trade-offs. However, it remains unclear how ecological resilience translates into movement flexibility and which factors influence animal movement in modified environments.
Howler monkeys (Alouatta spp.) are known to cope with significant anthropogenic pressure across their range. We examined how a gradient of habitat disturbance alters the intrinsic traits of black howler monkeys (A. pigra) and extrinsic habitat characteristics, and how these factors, in turn, drive their movement.
We monitored six groups of black howler monkeys in southeastern Mexico for one year, collecting data on activity, diet, movement, neighboring-group presence, food availability, and microclimate. We developed intrinsic and extrinsic models to identify the main drivers of movement across three spatiotemporal scales.
Our results revea..., , # Data from: From steps to home ranges: How habitat disturbance influences the movement drivers of an arboreal primate

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.zw3r228nn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zw3r228nn)

## Description of the data and file structure

From June 2023 to May 2024, we monitored six black howler groups under all weather conditions. During the first five months, two field teams, each with three observers, monitored one group four days a week, rotating among the six groups weekly. Starting from November 2023, only a single team continued the observations. We randomized the sequence of group observations to control for temporal autocorrelation. Observation days started at 5:30 AM and ended at 5:00 PM, when the black howlers usually settled into their sleeping trees. We followed the Principles for the Ethical Treatment of Non-Human Primates established by the American Society of Primatologists.

**Movement and intrinsic characteristics**

Since black howlers conduct their daily act..., ,