Braulio Pinacho-Guendulain

• Master in Science
• PhD Student at Metropolitan Autonomous University

We present several arguments for the preeminence of social interactions in determining and giving shape to societies. In our view, a society can emerge from social interaction and relationship patterns without the need for establishing an a priori limit on who actually belongs to it. Markers of group identity are one element among many that allow s...

In May and June 2024, a die-off of Mexican mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata mexicana) occurred in southern Mexico. This commentary documents the event, attributing it to extreme heatwaves, drought, wildfires, and habitat impoverishment. Despite their reported resilience to habitat disturbances, mantled howler monkey mortality rate in some...

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestrial-ity is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs...

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestriality is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs,...

The emergent concept of the social microbiome implies a view of a highly connected biological world, in which microbial interchange across organisms may be influenced by social and ecological connections occurring at different levels of biological organization. We explore this idea reviewing evidence of whether increasing social complexity in prima...

Wildlife conservation requires performing actions based on the size, composition, and distribution of their populations. This information, however, is incomplete or outdated for many areas of great biological importance. The goal of this study was counting the Black saraguatos (Alouatta pigra) in the Biosphere Reserve of Pantanos de Centla (BRPC) t...

Objectives Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that...

Some social species exhibit high levels of fission-fusion dynamics (FFD) that improve foraging efficiency. In this study, we shed light on the way that FFD allows animal groups to cope with fluctuations in fruit availability. We explore the relative contribution of fruit availability and social factors like sex in determining association and proxim...

Population estimates are critical for making informed conservation decisions. However, methods for data collection and analysis of population estimates from wildlife surveys vary, often preventing comparisons between sites or years. In this study we compared population density estimates of spider monkeys, Ateles geoffroyi, derived from four commonl...

Ecological niche modeling is used to estimate species distributions based on occurrence records and environmental variables, but it seldom includes explicit biotic or historical factors that are important in determining the distribution of species. Expert knowledge can provide additional valuable information regarding ecological or historical attri...

Microbiota, the community of microorganisms in a particular site (e.g., the gut) has been related to a variety of physiological and behavioural processes including influences on individual survivorship and reproductive success. Its similarities across distinct subjects may be dependent on factors such as diet and phylogenetic relationships. Yet, as...

The possibility that microbiota mediates social behaviour and the implications of such relationship, is still a relatively recent field of research that starts to attract the interest of the scientific community. The present review compiles studies suggesting that microbiota is homogenized between different individuals through social interactions,...

The possibility that microbiota mediates social behaviour and the implications of such relationship, 5is still a relatively recent field of research that starts to attract the interest of the scientific community. The present review compiles studies suggesting that microbiota is homogenized between different individuals through social interactions,...

The fast movement and high degree of fission-fusion dynamics of spider monkeys (Ateles spp.) make them notoriously difficult to survey. We examined which aspects of survey design affect spider monkey sightings along transects in a group of individually recognized spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) in Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico. We calculated the...

Socioecological theory proposes that the flexibility in grouping patterns afforded by fission–fusion dynamics allows animals to cope with spatiotemporal variability in food abundance. We investigate the influence of fruit tree abundance and foraging environment heterogeneity on fission–fusion dynamics in a group of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi)...

Spider monkeys (Ateles spp.) are large-bodied Neotropical primates threatened across their range largely due to habitat loss. Their fast movement and high degree of fission-fusion dynamics make them notoriously difficult to survey. The aim of our study was to test line transect methodology on a community of individually recognized spider monkeys (A...

Line transect surveys are the most commonly used method to census arboreal primates. However, to date, no study has tested whether fast moving arboreal species with high levels of fission-fusion dynamics, like spider monkeys (Ateles spp.) violate the assumptions associated with distance sampling such as miscounting groups and recounting individuals...

Aun cuando se tienen numerosos reportes sobre el estudio del mono aullador de manto (Alouatta palliata mexicana) en áreas particulares de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, existen solo unos cuantos reportes recientes de estudios con primates en el estado de Chiapas que señalan la carencia de información básica de la distribución de estos primates. En estos re...

Resumen The presence of spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) has been verified in the northeast of the state of Oaxaca. However, the information to assess their conservation status is scarce. This study focused during one year on the population census and habitat use of A. geoffroyi in a well-preserved fragment of evergreen forest. We used the distance...

Feeding competition depends on spatial proximity between foraging individuals, which could in turn depend on the structure of foraging patches. We explore this possibility using scan samples of subgroups of spider monkeys (N = 584 samples) foraging on six different species of trees that differ in their structure. We estimated spatial proximity as t...

Flexibility in spatial cohesion allows species with high fission–fusion dynamics to exploit variable habitats and decrease the costs of feeding competition. However, coordination among highly dispersed group members becomes problematic. In spider monkeys (Ateles spp.), individuals can spread over wide areas, forming several subgroups that appear to...