Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T19:30:18.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seasonal diet of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) in a semideciduous forest in south-east Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Mauro Galetti  and
Fernando Pedroni
Mauro Galetti
Affiliation:
Departamento de Zoologia, I.B., Universidade Estadual de Campinas, C.P. 6109, 13081-970 Campinas, Sāo Paulo, Brazil
Fernando Pedroni
Affiliation:
Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The diet of capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella, in a 250 ha semideciduous forest in south-east Brazil was studied for 44 consecutive months. Based on 367 feeding bouts the diet of capuchins was 53.9% fruit pulp, 16.0% seeds, 11.1% flowers, 6.3% leaves and new shoots, 1.5% roots and 13.9% corn from plantations surrounding the forest. Seventy-one plant species were consumed by capuchins. Food availability was markedly seasonal. During the dry season the fleshy fruit availability decreased, and at that time the capuchins became seed predators and flowereaters. Several fruits eaten by capuchins in the dry season were not consumed by other frugivorous vertebrates, such as howler monkeys, parrots or squirrels, allowing capuchins to avoid competition with other arboreal frugivores. In semideciduous forests where fleshy fruits are less abundant than in the wet forests capuchins are important seed predators.

Keywords

Brazilcapuchin monkeyCebus apelladietseed predationsemideciduous forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1994 , pp. 27 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

Altmann, J. 1974. Observational study of behavior: sampling methods. Behaviour 49:227–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayres, J. M. 1989. Comparative feeding ecology of the Uakari and Bearded Saki, Cacajao and Chiropothes. Journal of Human Evolution 18:697–716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A., Chalukian, S. & Malmierca, L.. 1984. Habitat y alimentacion de Cebus apella en el N.O. argentino y la disponibilidad de frutos en al dosel arboreo. Revista Museu Argentina Ciencias Naturais Bernardino Rivadavia 13:273–280.Google Scholar
Brown, A. D. & Zunino, G. E. 1990. Dietary variability in Cebus apella in extreme habitats: evidence for adaptability. Folia Primalologica 54:187–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Camara, I. G. 1983. Tropical moist forest conservation in Brazil. Pp. 413–421 in Sutton, S. L., Whitmore, T. C. & Chadwick, A. C. (eds). Tropical rainforest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific Publications. 498 pp.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. A. & Fedigan, L. M. 1990. Dietary differences between neighboring Cebus capucinus groups: local traditions, food availability or responses to food profitability. Folia Primatologica 54:177–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Fedigan, L. M. 1990. Vertebrate predation in Cebus capucinus: meat eating in a neotropical monkey. Folia Primatologica 54:196–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, R. B. 1982. The seasonal rhythms of fruitfall on Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 151–172 in Leigh, E. G., Rand, A. S. & Windsor, D. M. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.467.Google Scholar
Foster, R., Arce, J. & Wachter, T. S. 1986. Dispersal and the sequential plant communities in Amazonian Peru floodplain. Pp. 357–370 in Estrada, A. & Fleming, T. H. (eds). Frugivores and seed dispersal. Dr W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht. 392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fragaszy, D., Visalberghi, E. & Robinson, J. G. 1990. Variability and adaptability in the genus Cebus. Folia Primatologica 54:114–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freese, C. & Oppenheimer, J. R. 1981. The capuchin monkeys, genus Cebus. Pp. 331–390 in Coimbra-Filho, A. & Mittermeier, R. (eds). Ecology and behavior of Neotropical primates. Academia Brasileira de Ciēncias, Rio de Janeiro. 496.Google Scholar
Galetti, M. 1990. Predation on squirrel Sciurus aestuans by capuchin monkey Cebus apella. Mammalia 54:152–154.Google Scholar
Galetti, M. 1992. Sazonalidade na dieta de vertebrados frugívoros em uma floresta semidecídua no Brasil. Master thesis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas.Google Scholar
Galetti, M. In press. Diet of the Scaly-headed parrot (Pionus maximiliani) in a semideciduous forest in southeastern Brazil. Biotropica.Google Scholar
Galetti, M., Paschoal, M. & Pedroni, F. 1992. Predation on palm nuts (Syagrus romanzoffiana) by squirrels (Sciurus ingrami) in south-east Brazil. Journal of Tropical Ecology 8:121–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdridge, L. R. 1967. Life zone ecology. San Jose, Costa Rica: Tropical Science Center.Google Scholar
Izawa, K. 1979. Foods and feeding behavior of wild black-capped capuchin (Cebus apella). Primates 20:57–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Izawa, K. & Mizuno, A. 1977. Palm-fruit cracking behavior of wild black-capped capuchin (Cebus apella). Primates 18:773–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janson, C., Terborgh, J. & Emmons, L. 1981. Non-flying mammals as pollinating agents in the Amazonian forest. Biotropica 13:1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leitao-Filho, H. F. 1992. A flora arbórea de Serra do Japi. Pp. 40–62 in Morellato, L. P. C. (org.). História natural da Serra do Japi. Editora da Unicamp-Fapesp, Campinas. 321.Google Scholar
Longman, K. A. & Jenik, J. 1987. Tropical forest and its environments. Longman Scientific & Technical, New York.Google Scholar
Morellato, L. P. C. 1991. Estudo da fenologia de árvores, arbustos e lianas de uma floresta semidecídua no sudeste do Brasil. Unpublished PhD thesis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.Google Scholar
Morellato, L. P. C. & Leitao-Filho, H. F. 1992. Padrões de frutificação e dispersão na Serra do Japi. Pp. 112–140 in Morellato, L. P. C. (org.). Historia natural da Serra do Japi. Editors da Unicamp-Fapesp, Campinas. 321.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, J. R. 1982. Cebus capucinus: home range, population dynamics, and interspecific relationships. Pp. 253–272 in Leigh, E. G., Rand, A. S. & Windsor, D. M. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Peres, C. A. 1991. Seed predation of Cariniana micrantha (Lecythidaceae) by brown capuchin monkeys in Central Amazonia. Biotropica 23:262–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prance, G. T. 1980. A note on the probable pollination of Combretum by Cebus monkeys. Biotropica 12:239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, J. G. 1986. Seasonal variation in use of time and space by the Wedge-capped capuchin monkey, Cebus olivaceus: implications for foraging theory. Smithsonian Contributions of Zoology 00:1–60.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. G. & Janson C. H. 1989. Capuchins, squirrel monkeys, and atelines: socioecological convergence with Old World primates. Pp. 69–82 in Smuts, B. B., Cheney, D. L., Seyfarth, R. M., Wrangham, R. W. & Struhsaker, T. T. (eds). Primate societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 578 pp.Google Scholar
Roosmalen, M. C., Mittermeier, R. & Feagle, J. G. 1988. Diet of the northern bearded saki (Chiropotes satanas chiropotes): a neotropical seed predator. American Journal of Primatology 14:11–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rowell, T. E. & Mitchell, B. J. 1991. Comparison of seed dispersal by guenons in Kenya and capuchins in Panama. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:269–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, A. F. & Leitao-Filho, H. F. 1982. Composição floristica e estrutura de um trecho de mata atlântica de encosta no municipio de Ubatuba (SP, Brasil). Revista Brasileira de Botanica 5:43–52.Google Scholar
Spironelo, W. R. 1991. Importância dos frutos dc palmeiras (Palmae) na dicta de um grupo de Cebus apella (Cebidae, Primates) na Amazônia Central. Pp. 285–296 in A Primatologia no Brasil. Vol. 3.Google Scholar
Struhsaker, T. T. & Leland, L. 1977. Palm-nut smashing by Cebus a. apella in Colombia. Biotropica 9:124–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terborgh, J. 1983. Five New World monkeys. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Torres De Assumpçao, C. 1981. Cebus apella and Brachyteles arachnoides (Cebidae) as potential pollinators of Mabea fistulifera (Euphorbiaceae). Journal of Mammalogy 62:386–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torres De Assumpçao, C. 1983. An ecological study of the primates of Southeastern Brazil, with a reappraisal of Cebus apella races. PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Zar, J. H. 1984. Biostatistical analysis. 2nd edition. Prentice-Hall International Editions, London.Google Scholar