Cognition allows animals to acquire, process, and store sensory information from the environment and use it to adapt to their surroundings. A battery of behavioral tests was used to assess the cognitive abilities of black-handed spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). Black and white cups were used to assess (1) object permanence by showing the animals under which cup the reward was placed, (2) associative learning by concealing where the reward was placed, and (3) long-term memory by repeating the second task after a 4-month break; petri dishes with varying amounts of food were used to assess (4) relative quantity discrimination; and boxes fitted with dotted cards were used to assess discrete number discrimination with (5) equallysized dots and (6) various-sized dots. For each task, one session comprised 10 trials (i.e. responses). All nine animals succeeded in all tests and, as a group, reached the learning criterion of 70% correct responses on session two in the object permanence and associative learning tasks; on session eleven in the quantity discrimination task; on session sixteen in the numerosity task with equally-sized dots; on session three in the numerosity task with various-sized dots; and averaged 84.4% correct responses in the long-term memory task. Their prompt high score in the numerosity task with various-sized dots suggests that the animals acknowledged the task for its numerical properties as opposed to the size or pattern of the dots. These cognitive abilities are thought to shape the necessary behaviors for the ecological and social needs of the species.

Establishing baseline activity budgets for zoo-housed captive animals can be important in tracking behavior changes that may indicate medical or other concerns, as well as assessing overall welfare and the need for implementation of interventions such as increased amounts of enrichment. This study sought to calculate activity budgets for the current spider monkeys residing at the Central Florida Zoo, a father-daughter pair of Ateles geoffroyi. Having a baseline activity budget is also valuable because major changes in behavior may accompany the upcoming introduction of new individuals to this particular group of spider monkeys. BORIS behavior coding software was used to log behavior continuously over 58.3 hours of observation. The individuals in this zoo setting spent significantly more time stationary (resting or still and awake) and less time engaged in feeding behavior than wild spider monkeys. However, they spent as much or more of their time moving than Ateles species in natural settings. Temperature and exhibit renovation had minimal to no observed effects on activity budgets. Human presence usually has the effect of increasing activity and vigilance of animals while decreasing resting time, but on busier days at the zoo, one subject (a pet-reared male spider monkey) spent more time resting and less time moving than when there were fewer zoo visitors. No aggression was observed, but affiliative social behavior like allogrooming and embracing was observed infrequently. The study animals appeared to lack the bimodal pattern of activity (with activity peaking early and late in the day) common in wild spider monkeys, a finding that is consistent with activity budgets of other spider monkeys that are frequently exposed to humans. Time of day affected activity budgets to a small degree; the monkeys became more active later in the day and spent more time resting in the morning.

There is little knowledge about olfactory learning in primates, even though primates are known to use olfaction in several behaviors including food selection and territorial defense. Therefore I assessed the olfactory learning and memory performance in five adult spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) using a food-rewarded two-choice olfactory discrimination paradigm. The spider monkeys acquired the initial odor discrimination in 530-1102 trials and in a series of intramodal transfer tasks they needed 30-510 trials to reach the learning criterion. There was a significant negative correlation between the number of trials needed to reach the learning criterion and the number of transfer tasks completed. Thus, as a group, the animals displayed olfactory learning set formation. The number of trials that the spider monkeys needed in initial olfactory learning was comparable to that of other primate species tested previously but higher compared to that of other mammals such as dogs and rats. The learning speed of the spider monkeys in intramodal transfer tasks was similar to that of other mammals tested, suggesting that primates are less prepared to use olfactory cues in the initial solving of a problem but that once they learn the concept, their learning speed with novel odor discrimination problems is not generally slower than that of non-primate mammals. All spider monkeys tested reached the learning criterion in the memory tasks straight on the first testing day, that is: within 30 trials, suggesting similar long-term odor memory capabilities in spider monkeys and other mammals such as dogs, mice and rats.

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