Agricultural crops in the diet of bearded capuchin monkeys, Cebus libidinosus Spix (Primates: Cebidae), in forest fragments in southeast Brazil

Abstract

Capuchin monkeys occupy a wide range of habitats where they feed on fruits, arthropods, and vertebrates. Their large home ranges (80-900 ha) suggest that living in forest fragments may challenge their adaptability. We identified and quantified the main food items of Cebus libidinosus Spix, 1823 in forests fragments (100 ha) in southeastern Brazil. We recorded the feeding activities of two groups using scan sampling over a 13-month period. The diet was composed of fruits, crops, animal prey, seeds, plant matter and undetermined. Fruit was eaten more in the wet season than in the dry season, and maize and sugar cane consumption peaked in the early dry season. The proportion of fruit in the diet was positively correlated with fruiting intensity of zoochorous trees. The plant diet included 54 species, with maize, Rhamnidium elaeocarpus, Acrocomia aculeata, Guazuma ulmifolia and Cariniana, being most important. Although dietary composition and diversity were similar to capuchins in larger forest fragments, feeding on crops attained higher percentages at times when zoochorous fruit production was low in fragments.

Estado de conservación de Lagothrix flavicauda y otros primates en bosques montanos de San Martín y Huánuco, Perú

“…En estos sitios de muestreo, la caza según manifestaron algunos pobladores está orientada mayormente al control de poblaciones de ciertas especies consideradas plagas para la agricultura entre los que se encuentran S. macrocephalus y C. yuracus, más conocidos como "chocleros" o "maiceros". El ingreso a los campos de cultivo podría estar relacionado con aquellos grupos que habitan en bosques fuertemente degradados o en fragmentos de bosques relativamente pequeños y coincidentes con la época de escasez de recursos alimenticios, tal como fue demostrado en Cerro Preto y Boa Esperança en el estado de Rio Grande do Sul (Rocha & Fortes, 2015) y al sureste de Brasil (Freitas et al 2008), respectivamente. La diferencia está en el trato a estos animales, mientras que en el área de estudio se opta por la caza con armas de fuego para disminuir las poblaciones, en Brasil reconocen la importancia de estos primates en el bosque, por lo que para ahuyentarlos, la mayoría recurren a la emisión de sonidos fuertes o al uso de perros, pero no los matan.…”

Habitat use by Callicebus coimbrai (Primates: Pitheciidae) and sympatric species in the fragmented landscape of the Atlantic Forest of southern Sergipe, Brazil

“…This may explain the absence of C. xanthosternos from many of the sites Callicebus at which has been recorded in Sergipe (JERUSALINSKY et al 2006). An additional local factor would be the absence from the surrounding matrix of crops such as maize and sugarcane, which may constitute an essential resource for many fragment-dwelling capuchins (FREITAS et al 2008).…”

Seed predation of <i>Mabea fistulifera</i> (Euphorbiaceae) by northern muriquis (<i>Brachyteles hypoxanthus</i>)

“…Taira (2007) suggests that the consumption of palm heart in the Winter is an alternative source to insect scarcity, but not to fruit scarcity, which also occurs in the Winter at CBSP (Nakai, 2007). On the other hand, several papers concerning the diet of C. nigritus and congeners reported the use of alternative food resource in period of scarcity of fruits which normally constitute the main part of Cebus diet (Galetti and Pedroni, 1994;Peres, 1994;Freitas et al, 2008). Therefore, we suggest that palm heart of E. edulis and, at a lesser extent, of G. gamiova, might be considered as a fallback food of C. nigritus.…”

“…Primates killing trees through herbivory is rarely documented (Rocha, 2000;Santos et al, 2007). The genus Cebus (Erxleben, 1777) is considered as having the widest diet plasticity among neotropical primates, eating leaves, seeds, fruits, invertebrates and even vertebrates (Fedigan, 1990;Galetti and Pedroni, 1994;Susan and Rose, 1994;Rose, 1996;Ludwig et al, 2005;Carretero-Pinzón et al, 2008;Freitas et al, 2008). In this paper, we documented the predation of two palm species through the consumption of palm heart (apical meristem) by black-capuchin monkey (Cebus nigritus Goldfuss, 1809).…”