Data Submission Package for Manuscript 'Progress on the world's primate hotspots and coldspots: Modeling ensemble Super SDMs in cloud-computers based on digital citizen-science Big Data and 200+ predictors for more sustainable conservation planning'

Moriz Steiner et al.
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:13:45 PDT

Describing where distribution hotspots and coldspots are located with certainty is crucial for any science-based species management and governance. Thus, here we created the world’s first Super Species Distribution Models (SDMs) including all primate species and the best-available predictor set. These Super SDMs are conducted using modern Machine Learning ensembles like Maxent, TreeNet, RandomForest, CART, CART Boosting and Bagging, and MARS with the utilization of cloud supercomputers (as an add-on option for more powerful models). For the global cold/ hotspot models, we obtained global distribution data from www.GBIF.org (approx. 420,000 raw occurrence records) and utilized the world’s largest environmental predictor set of 201 layers. For this analysis, all occurrences have been merged into one multi-species (400+ species) pixel-based analysis. We quantified the global primate hotspots for Central and Northern South America, West Africa, East Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and Southern Africa. The global primate coldspots are Antarctica, the Arctic, most temperate regions, and Oceania past the Wallace line. We additionally described all these modeled hotspots/coldspots and discussed reasons for a quantified understanding of where the world’s primates occur (or not). This shows us where the focus for most future research and conservation management efforts should be, using state-of-the-art digital data indication tools with reason. Those areas should be considered of the highest conservation priority, ideally following ‘no killing zones’ and sustainable land stewardship approaches if primates are to have a chance of survival.