Plant diversity in the diet of Costa Rican primates in contrasting habitats: a meta-analysis

Abstract

In human-modified tropical landscapes, the survival of arboreal vertebrates, particularly primates, depends on their plant dietary diversity. Here, we assessed diversity in the vegetative diets of Costa Rican non-human primates (i.e. Alouatta palliata palliata, Ateles geoffroyi, Cebus imitator, and Saimiri oerstedii) inhabiting a range of habitat types. Specifically, we assessed: (i) richness and dietary plant diversity, (ii) the β-diversity of dietary plant species and the relative importance of species turnover and nestedness in contributing to these patterns, and (iii) the main ecological drivers of the observed patterns in dietary plant assemblages. Data on diet were available for 33 Alouatta, 15 Cebus, 8 Ateles, and 5 Saimiri groups, from 37 published and unpublished studies. Considering all studies, dietary plant species richness was highest in Alouatta (454 spp.), followed by Ateles (329 spp.), Cebus (237 spp.), and Saimiri (183 spp.). However, rarefaction curves indicated that the diversity of plant species in diet was higher in Ateles than in the other three primate species. The diversity of plants was 868 species (range=1664-2041 species). The three top food species were Spondias mombin, Bursera simaruba, and Samanea saman. Species turnover was the mechanism responsible for most of the dissimilarity in the plant assemblages in diet (Beta-sim = 0.76). Finally, primate species, habitat type and, to a lesser degree, sampling effort were the best predictors of the dietary plant assemblages. Our findings suggest that primate diets are diverse, even in severely-disturbed habitats.

Plant Diversity in the Diet of Costa Rican Primates in Contrasting Habitats: A Meta-Analysis

“…Pop = entire monkey population in the study area. In the thesis of Larose [47], the plant species richness by group ranged from 26 to 36 (see Appendix 1 and 2 in Chaves et al [76]). 10 Group size or range of group sizes studied.…”

“…We only included field studies on wild, free-ranging monkey groups using standardized observational methods (e.g., instantaneous scans, focal animal, and ad libitum observations [77]) and with a sampling effort ≥ 6 study months in our statistical analyses. However, to provide a comprehensive resource, datasets that did not fulfill these discrimination criteria were included in the online meta-analysis dataset (see Appendixs 1 and 2 in Chaves et al [76]).…”

“…Overall, we found 43 published and unpublished datasets on the diet of one or more CR-NHP (see Appendix 1 in Chaves et al [76]). Most of these were scientific papers (58%), followed by Master's theses (16.3%), Ph.D. theses and unpublished data (9.3% each).…”

“…Commonly, these studies were focused on one or two different primate groups (range = 1-8 groups). In total, data on diet was available for 34 Alouatta, 16 Cebus, eight Ateles, and five Saimiri groups (see Appendix 2 in Chaves et al [76]). However, only 37 datasets met our criteria to be included in the statistical analyses (Table 1; see also Appendixs 1, 2 and 3 in Chaves et al [76]).…”

Eco-Anthropological factors explaining forest patch use by 3 species of wild Atelid monkeys co-existing with a small-scale farming community in Northeastern Costa Rica, Central America

“…NHP show several adaptations to living in fragmented habitats, for example, by changing their activity budgets (Chaves et. Al., 2011;Gabriel, 2003), diets (Chaves et al, 2023), and social structure (Bolt et al, 2019).…”