Alouatta palliata
Drawn from open occurrence records inside Tortuguero, aggregated onto a 10 km grid.
Occurrence records measure where people looked and found something, which is not the same as where the animal is. This is a relative likelihood, not a probability.
Records exist for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. A quiet month can mean the animal was absent, or that nobody was looking.
You will hear a mantled howler long before you see one, and possibly before you are fully awake: the dawn roar of a male carries three kilometers or more through wet forest, produced by a resonating throat bone that turns a ten-kilogram monkey into a public address system. The howl is real estate law, troops announcing position so that rival groups can avoid an actual fight neither can afford. Howlers run the rainforest's low-energy strategy: they eat leaves, which are abundant and nearly worthless, and pay for it by resting up to three quarters of the day, draped over branches like discarded coats. Troops of a dozen or two are a fixture of Costa Rican forest, mangrove and even roadside strips.
Troops led by a few males, choruses at dawn and before storms. Movement is deliberate, hand over hand, tail always anchored.
Follow the roar at first light and shoot upward with exposure compensation at plus one; a black monkey against bright canopy fools every meter. The wide yawn is the frame.
Never feed monkeys and keep distance at eye-contact height; habituated howlers end up electrocuted on roadside wires chasing handouts.