The black-headed spider monkey has black fur and a dark face. Long limbs and a grasping tail help it move through the canopy, where fruit is its main food.
Its coat and facial skin are black. Long limbs and a grasping tail help it hang and move among branches.
The black-headed spider monkey lives in Central and South American forests. In 2015, a survey in Manabí province, northwestern Ecuador, found the Ecuadorian subspecies A. f. fusciceps about 100 kilometres southwest of its previously known range. Forest in the surrounding area remains in 11 separate fragments.
Researchers surveyed six fragments and visually confirmed 16 monkeys in four of them. The observed groups ranged from one to seven animals and included females, males, and young. These records document a regional population living among scattered patches of forest.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In Manabí, northwestern Ecuador, forest occurred in 11 fragments, and 16 monkeys were confirmed at four surveyed sites. The record documents a population of the Ecuadorian subspecies about 100 kilometres beyond its previously known range.