Dados do Trabalho

Título

CHARACTERISTICS OF FRUIT PULP CONSUMED BY A "SEED PREDATOR" GOLDEN-FACED SAKI (PITHECIA CHRYSOCEPHALA) AND SYMPATRIC COMMON SQUIRREL MONKEY (SAIMIRI SCIUREUS)

Resumo

Sakis (genus Pithecia) are generally described as “seed predators” because of their specialized dentition allowing them to access hard seeds. Meanwhile, the fact that they also consume considerable amount of fruit pulp has been overlooked. As the seed feeding habit in pithecia is considered to be branched from more general frugivores, it is important to know how they are keeping pulp eating habit, to explore the process of diet evolution in primates. In this study, we aimed to describe the characteristics of pulp use by saki, compared to sympatric squirrel monkey. We studied two groups of golden-faced saki (Pithecia chrysocephala) and a group of common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) inhabiting the campus of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), Manaus, Brazil. We followed each group for 3-4 days a month, from March 2019 to June 2019. We recorded their feeding behavior via instantaneous scan sampling every 10 minutes.Monthly fruit consumption accounted for 57%~82% of the feeding time in saki, and 37%~59% in squirrel monkey. Diversity (Shannon-Wiener index) of the fruit consumption (including seed and pulp) was constantly higher in saki, but the diversity of the “pulp” consumption was always higher in squirrel monkey. Throughout the study period, saki consumed pulps of 32 species and squirrel monkey consumed pulps of 33 species. Among them, 14 species were overlapped, and 18 species and 19 species were unique for saki and for squirrel monkey, respectively. The hardness of the fruits were significantly higher in fruit pulps eaten by saki. This result suggests that saki had wider option of fruits pulp selection morphologically, but it cannot explain the reason why saki did not eat the 19 species unique for squirrel monkey. The data of relative availability and nutritional/chemical contents of the fruits should be included in the analysis in the future.

Financiamento

Leading graduate program in primatology and wildlife science, Kyoto University, Japan / Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI

Palavras-chave

Seleção de frutas, Diversidade alimentar, Comportamento alimentar