brown-headed spider monkey

{{Short description|Subspecies of New World monkey}}

{{Subspeciesbox

| name = Brown-headed spider monkey{{MSW3 Groves|id=12100397}}

| image = Ateles fusciceps fusciceps imported from iNaturalist photo 125996841 on 21 January 2024.jpg

| image_caption = A. fusciceps fusciceps at Ecuador

| status = CR

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=Moscoso, P. |author2=Link, A. |author3=de la Torre, S. |author4=Shanee, S. |author5=Cortes-Ortíz, L. |year=2021 |amends=2020 |title=Ateles fusciceps ssp. fusciceps |page=e.T39922A191687911 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T39922A191687911.en}}

| genus = Ateles

| species = fusciceps

| species_link = Black-headed spider monkey

| subspecies = fusciceps

| authority = (Gray, 1866)

| synonyms =

}}

The brown-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps fusciceps) is a critically endangered subspecies of the black-headed spider monkey, a type of New World monkey, found in northwestern Ecuador.{{cite book|title=New Perspectives in the Study of Mesoamerican Primates|chapter=Taxonomy and Distributions of Mesoamerican Primates|author1=Rylands, A. |author2=Groves, C. |author3=Mittermeier, R. |author4=Cortes-Ortiz, L. |author5=Hines, J. |name-list-style=amp |year=2006|pages=56–66|isbn=0-387-25854-X}}

Its type locality is at 1500 m in the Hacienda Chinipamba, Imbabura Province in North-West Ecuador. It inhabits areas west of the Andes Mountains.{{cite book|last1=de la Torre|first1=Stella|title=Primate Tourism: A Tool for Conservation?|date=2014|page=245|isbn=9781316060766|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i8qKBAAAQBAJ&q=Saguinus+graellsi&pg=PA245|access-date=28 June 2016}} Some authorities, such as Froelich (1991), Collins and Dubach (2001) and Nieves (2005), do not recognize the black-headed spider monkey as a distinct species and so treat the brown-headed spider monkey as a subspecies of Geoffroy's spider monkey.{{cite book|title=Spider Monkeys|editor=Campbell, C.|chapter=The taxonomic status of spider monkeys in the twenty-first century|author=Collins, A.|year=2008|pages=50–67|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86750-4}}

The brown-headed spider monkey lives in tropical and subtropical humid forests that are between {{convert|100|and|1700|m|ft}} above sea level. It lives in population densities of 1.2 monkeys per square kilometer. It has a black or brown body and a brown head, while the Colombian spider monkey (A. f. rufiventris) is entirely black with some white on its chin.

The brown-headed spider monkey is critically endangered as a result of habitat loss, due to deforestation, and hunting.{{cite journal|author=Cervera, Laura|author2=Griffith, Daniel M.|name-list-style=amp|title=New Population and Range Extension of the Critically Endangered Ecuadorian Brown-Headed Spider Monkey (Ateles Fusciceps Fusciceps) in Western Ecuador|journal=Tropical Conservation Science|date=March 2016|pages=167–177|doi=10.1177/194008291600900109|volume=9|issue=1|doi-access=free}}