Digesta passage and fiber digestibility in captive white‐faced sakis (<i>Pithecia pithecia</i>)

Norconk, Marilyn A.; Oftedal, Olav T.; Power, Michael L.; Jakubasz, Michael; Savage, Anne

doi:10.1002/ajp.10048

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In addition to evolving both dental and digestive specializations that enable ingestion of seeds of immature fruit (Norconk et al 1998), granivorous primates, like folivores, have relatively long gut retention times that allow for fermentation. Although bald-faced sakis did not show seasonal dietary stress, their puzzling early arrival (often 3 h before dusk) at their daily sleeping sites -a behavior seen in other vertebrate seed predators (Emmons 1980, Norconk et al 2002)suggests that they may require a long digestive period, compared to pulp-eating frugivores (Norconk et al 2002). In addition, early arrival at sleeping trees may be an adaptation to reduce predation risk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Advantages of granivory in seasonal environments: feeding ecology of an arboreal seed predator in Amazonian forests

Palminteri

Powell

Peres

2012

Oikos

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Specialized seed predators are uncommon in arboreal vertebrate assemblages, and the hypothesis that consuming seeds of immature fruits – which may be available for relatively long periods compared to mature fruit – could reduce seasonal food scarcity experienced by generalist frugivores remains largely untested. To test this hypothesis, we examined the diet and feeding ecology of bald-faced saki monkeys Pithecia irrorata in a largely intact forest mosaic of southeastern Peru based on systematic monitoring of five habituated groups over a three-year period and compared the relative availability of ripe and unripe fruits in their diet. Plant phenology data from individual tree crowns showed that, compared to ripe fruits, immature fruits were available in more tree species, in greater quantities, and for longer periods. Despite pronounced community-wide seasonal changes in fruit production at our study area, feeding patterns of bald-faced saki remained largely invariant: fruits comprised approximately 95% of the species’ monthly diet, with seeds alone accounting for 75%, with no major monthly dietary shifts. The flexible exploitation by this species of a consistently available food supply for which it faces little competition likely reduces foraging effort and consumption of less desirable foods, even during prolonged periods of overall fruit scarcity. The relative rarity of immature fruit specialists in tropical forests may reflect the fact that processing the hard pericarps and neutralizing the toxicities of immature seeds present substantial evolutionary hurdles that few arboreal vertebrate species have overcome

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Advantages of granivory in seasonal environments: feeding ecology of an arboreal seed predator in Amazonian forests

Palminteri

Powell

Peres

2012

Oikos

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“…Time to first appearance of marker, whether liquid or solid, is measured in hours, and 60-80% of marker is excreted within the first 12 hr [Power, 1991;Caton et al, 1996; this study]. In contrast, for White-faced sakis (Pithecia pithecia), a seed predator, the first appearance of marker was generally after 10 hr, and excretion of 60% of marker was not until after 24hr post ingestion [Norconk et al, 2002]. Admittedly, sakis are approximately five times the mass of common marmosets; however, we hypothesize that the longer retention times between a seed predator, such as a saki monkey, and most callitrichids also reflects the different costs vs. benefits of retaining seeds within the digestive tract for these taxa.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Digestion in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), a gummivore–frugivore

Power

Myers

2009

American J Primatol

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Wild common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) feed on fruits, insects, and gums, all of which provide different digestive challenges. Much of the ingested mass of fruits consists of seeds. In general, seeds represent indigestible bulk to marmosets and could inhibit feeding if they are not eliminated rapidly. In contrast, gums are (Winked polysaccharides that require microbial fermentation. Their digestion would benefit from an extended residence time within the gut. Earlier research found that mean retention time (MRT) for a liquid digestive marker (cobalt EDTA) was significantly longer than MRT for a particulate marker (chromium-mordanted fiber), suggesting that common marmosets preferentially retain liquid digesta. We conducted two four-day-long digestion trials on 13 individually housed adult common marmosets fed a single-item, purified diet in order to examine the relations among MRT of cobalt EDTA and chromium-mordanted fiber, food dry matter intake (DMI), and apparent digestibility of dry matter (ADDM). We compared the MRT values with the data from the previous study mentioned above and a study using polystyrene beads. There were no significant correlations among MRT, ADDM, or DMI, although increases in DMI between trials were associated with decreases in MRT. ADDM was consistent within individuals between trials; but the mean values ranged from 75.0 to 83.4% among individuals. We found no difference in MRT between the liquid (17.5 +1.6 hr) and particulate (17.9+1.4 hr) markers. Although these values were not significantly different than found previously, the MRT for chromium-mordanted fiber tended to be longer. This probably reflects the relatively small size of the chromium-mordanted fiber particles used in this study. An inverse relationship between particle size and MRT was evident; the mean MRT of polysterene beads, the largest marker, was only 8.3 +1.5 hr. Marmosets appear to retain liquids and small particles within the gut longer than large particles. Am. J. Primatol. 71:957-963, 2009.

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“…Although we observed temporal fluctuations in the numbers of T. abrassarti, as shown in previous studies of both wild and captive chimpanzees [Pomajbíková 2008;Profousová 2007], we recorded a significant increase in the numbers of T. abrassarti when the animals were fed the LFD compared to the HFD. The nature of captive investigations prevents the use of acclimatization/transition periods that are of much greater duration than were used in this study [Milton & Demment, 1988;Norconk et al, 2002;Schmidt et al, 2005]. The short acclimatization/transition periods in the current protocol, especially for the LFD, may have contributed to the lack of any significant difference in CPG between the LFD and HFD when we initiated the diets [Mihaliková et al, 2005;Váradyová et al, 2007].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Low‐ and High‐Fiber Diets on the Population of Entodiniomorphid Ciliates Troglodytella Abrassarti in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)

Petrželková

Schovancová

Profousová

et al. 2012

American J Primatol

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Troglodytella abrassarti is an intestinal entodiniomorphid ciliate commonly diagnosed in the feces of wild and captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Entodiniomorphids could be considered to have a mutualistic relationship with the great apes, in that the ciliates benefit from the intestinal ecosystem of the host, while also contributing to the fiber fermentation process. We examined the effect of diet on the infection intensities of T. abrassarti in two captive chimpanzees in the Liberec Zoo, Czech Republic. The chimpanzees were fed a low-fiber diet (LFD) with 14% neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and a high-fiber diet (HFD; 26% NDF) for 10 days with one transition, and two 10-day adaptation periods. Fecal samples were examined coproscopically with the merthiolate-iodine-formaldehyde concentration (MIFC) technique, in order to quantify the number of ciliates per gram of feces. A significant trend of increasing T. abrassarti numbers was observed when the animals were fed the LFD, compared to when they were fed the HFD. Our results suggest, however, that infection intensities of T. abrassarti in captive chimpanzees are not influenced primarily by the amount of fiber in the diet, but rather by the dietary starch concentration (HFD: 1%; LFD: 8%).

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Digesta passage and fiber digestibility in captive white‐faced sakis (Pithecia pithecia)

Cited by 25 publications

References 30 publications

Advantages of granivory in seasonal environments: feeding ecology of an arboreal seed predator in Amazonian forests

Advantages of granivory in seasonal environments: feeding ecology of an arboreal seed predator in Amazonian forests

Digestion in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus), a gummivore–frugivore

The Effect of Low‐ and High‐Fiber Diets on the Population of Entodiniomorphid Ciliates Troglodytella Abrassarti in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes)

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