Modeling the Searching Behavior of Social Monkeys

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the movement patterns of social monkeys, proposing a simple deterministic model that captures observed behaviors such as angular correlations and Lévy distributions, highlighting social interaction influences.

Contribution

It introduces a novel deterministic walk model in a random environment that reproduces key features of monkey foraging trajectories observed in situ.

Findings

Model reproduces angular correlations in monkey movements.

Lévy distributions emerge in step lengths.

Social interactions influence movement patterns.

Abstract

We discuss various features of the trajectories of spider monkeys looking for food in a tropical forest, as observed recently in an extensive {\it in situ} study. Some of the features observed can be interpreted as the result of social interactions. In addition, a simple model of deterministic walk in a random environment reproduces the observed angular correlations between successive steps, and in some cases, the emergence of L\'evy distributions for the length of the steps.