Skip to main content
Log in

Prey-capture benefits in a mixed-species group of Amazonian tamarins, Saguinus fuscicollis and S. mystax

  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Tamarins of the genus Saguinus feed on a wide range of arthropods and small vertebrates, which compose a critical component of their diet. This paper examines the foraging patterns and capture success of the Avila-Peres saddle-back (S. fuscicollis avilapiresi) and the red-capped moustached tamarin (S. mystax pileatus) in very stable mixed-species groups, and whether and how any foraging benefits for either species resulted from their association. Moustached tamarins actively searched for prey items which were mainly well exposed on the midstorey foliage. Saddle-back tamarins, on the other hand, foraged at lower heights, largely by manipulating a variety of microhabitats potentially concealing embedded prey. The foraging activity of the numerically dominant and larger-bodied moustached tamarins often resulted in prey items escaping to lower substrates, usually the forest leaf-litter. The “beating effect” of this species substantially facilitated captures of large, mobile prey items by saddle-backs, which were highly adept at locating and retrieving flushed prey. It is estimated that, while saddle-backs obtained 66–73% of their prey biomass from flushed items, this proportion was substantially lower (2–9%) for moustached tamarins. Commensal insectivory appears to involve a highly asymmetric benefit to saddle-backs, and a low cost to moustached tamarins, which partly explains the stability of mixed-species groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alevizon WS (1976) Mixed schooling and its possible significance in a tropical western Atlantic parrotfish and sturgeon fish. Copeia 796–798

  • Altmann J (1974) Observational study of behavior: sampling methods. Behaviour 49:227–267

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beier M (1962) Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae. I. Tierreich 73:1–468

    Google Scholar 

  • Belwood JJ (in press) Anti-predator defences and ecology of neotropical forest katydids, especially the Peseudophyllinae. In: Bailey WU, Rentz DCF (eds) The Tettigoniidae: biology, systematics, and evolution. Crawford House Press

  • Belwood JJ, Morris GK (1987) Bat predation and its influence on calling behavior in neotropical katydids. Science 238:64–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Boinski S, Scott PS (1988) Association of birds with monkeys in Costa Rica. Biotropica 20(2):136–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Brackenbury J (1991) Wing kinematics during natural leaping in the mantids Mantis religiosa and Iris oratoria. Zool London 223:341–356

    Google Scholar 

  • Cords M (1987) Mixed-species association of Cercopithecus monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, Kenya. Univ Calif Publ Zool 117:1–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari SF (1988) The behaviour and ecology of the buffy-headed marmoset, Callithrix flaviceps (O. Thomas, 1903). PhD thesis, University College London

  • Fontaine R (1980) Observations on the foraging association of the double-toothed kites and white-faced capuchin monkeys. Auk 97:94–98

    Google Scholar 

  • Garber PA (1988) Diet, foraging patterns, and resource defense in a mixed species troop of Saguinus mystax and Saguinus fuscicollis in Amazonian Peru. Behaviour 105:18–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Gartlan JS, Struhsaker TT (1972) Polyspecific associations and niche separation of rain-forest anthropoids in Cameroon, West Africa. J Zool London 168:221–266

    Google Scholar 

  • Gautier-Hion A (1988) Polyspecific associations among forest guenons: ecological, behavioural and evolutionary aspects. In: Gautier-Hion A, Bourliere F, Gautier J-P, Kingdon J (eds) A primate radiation: evolutionary biology of the African guenons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 452–476

    Google Scholar 

  • Gautier-Hion A, Gautier J-P (1974) Les associations polyspéci-fiques des Cercopithèques du plateau de M'passa, Gabon. Folia Primatol 22:134–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Gradwohl J, Greenberg R (1984) Search behavior of the checker-throated antwren foraging in aerial leaf litter. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 15:281–285

    Google Scholar 

  • Hershkovitz P (1977) Living new world monkeys (Platyrrhini) with an introduction to primates, Vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurlbert SH (1978) The measurement of niche overlap and some relatives. Ecology 59:67–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Janson CH, Emmons LH (1990) Ecological structure of the nonflying mammal community at the Cocha Cashu biological station, Manu National Park, Peru. In: Gentry (ed) Four neotropical rainforests. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 314–338

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingdon J (1988) What are face patterns and do they contribute to reproductive isolation in guenons? In: Gautier-Hion A, Bourliere F, Gautier J-P, Kingdon J (eds) A primate radiation: evolutionary biology of the African guenons. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 227–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein LL, Klein DJ (1973) Observations on two types of neotropical primate intertaxa associations. Am J Phys Anthropol 38:649–654

    Google Scholar 

  • Leuthold W (1977) African ungulates: a comparative review of their ethology and behavioral ecology. Springer-Verlag, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • May RM (1974) On the theory of niche overlap. Theor Popul Biol 5:297–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn CA (1985) Permanent canopy and understory flocks in Amazonia: species composition and population density. In: Buckley PA, Foster MS, Morton ES, Ridgely RS, Buckley FG (eds) Neotropical ornithology. Ornithol Monogr 36:683–712. American Ornithological Union, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn CA (1986) Birds that ‘cry wolf’. Nature 6049:143–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn CA, Terborgh JW (1979) Multi-species territoriality in neotropical foraging flocks. Condor 81:338–347

    Google Scholar 

  • Nickle DA (1988) Singing in the rainforest: the katydids of the Peruvian Amazon. Orion 7:42–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Oates JF, Whitesides GH (1990) Association between olive colobus (Procolobus verus), Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana), and other forest monkeys in Sierra Leone. Am J Primatol 21:129–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Peres CA (1986) Costs and benefits of territorial defense in golden lion tamarins, Leontopithecus rosalia. MSc thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville

    Google Scholar 

  • Peres CA (1989) Costs and benefits of territorial defense in wild golden lion tamarins, Leontopithecus rosalia. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 25:227–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Peres CA (1991) Ecology of mixed-species groups of tamarins in Amazonian terra firme forests. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Peres CA (in press) Antipredation benefits in a mixed-species group of Amazonian Tamarins. Folia Primatol

  • Peres CA, Whittaker A (1991) Annotated checklist of bird species of the upper Rio Urucu, Amazonas, Brazil. Bull Brit Ornithol Club 111(3):156–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Petraitis PS (1979) Likelihood measures of niche breadth and overlap. Ecology 60:703–710

    Google Scholar 

  • Petraitis PS (1985) The relationship between likelihood niche measures and replicated tests for goodness of fit. Ecology 66:1983–1985

    Google Scholar 

  • Pook AG, Pock G (1982) Polyspecific association between Saguinus fuscicollis, Saguinus labiatus, Callimico goeldii and other primates in North-Western Bolivia. Folia Primatol 38:196–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Remsen JV Jr, Parker TA (1984) Arboreal dead-leaf-searching birds of the neotropics. Condor 86:36–41

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudran R (1978) Socioecology of the blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis stuhlamanni) of the Kibale Forest, Uganda. Smithson Contrib Zool 249:1–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Rylands AB (1990) Sympatric Brazilian callitrichids: the black tufted-ear marmoset, Callithrix kuhli, and the golden-headed lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysomelas. J Hum Evol 18:679–695

    Google Scholar 

  • Rylands AB, Cruz MAOM, Ferrari SF (1989) An association between marmosets and army ants in Brazil. J Trop Ecol 5:113–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Siegel S (1956) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Soini P (1982) Ecology and population dynamics of the pygmy marmoset, Cebuella pygmaea. Folia Primatol 39:1–21

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry, 2nd edn. Freeman, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker TT (1981) Polyspecific associations among tropical rain-forest primates. Z Tierpsychol 57:268–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh J (1983) Five new world primates. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh J (1990) Mixed-species flocks and polyspecific associations: costs and benefits of mixed groups to birds and monkeys. Am J Primatol 21:87–100

    Google Scholar 

  • Waser PM (1982) Primate polyspecific associations: do they occur by chance? Anim Behav 30:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Waser PM (1984) Chance and mixed-species associations. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 15:197–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Waser PM (1987) Interactions among primate species. In: Smuts BB, Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM, Wrangham RW, Struhsaker TT (eds) Primate societies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 210–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiley RH (1980) Multispecies antbird societies in lowland forests of Surinam and Ecuador: stable membership and foraging differences. J Zool London 191:127–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Willis EO, Oniki Y (1978) Birds and army ants. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 9:243–263

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoneda M (1981) Ecological studies of Saguinus fuscicollis and Saguinus labiatus with reference to habitat segregation and height preference. Kyoto Univ Overseas Res Rep New World Monkeys 2:43–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoneda M (1984) Comparative studies on vertical separation, for-aging behavior and traveling of saddle-backed tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis) and red-chested moustached tamarins (Saguinus labiatus) in Northern Bolivia. Primates 25:414–422

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

Correspondence to the present address

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Peres, C.A. Prey-capture benefits in a mixed-species group of Amazonian tamarins, Saguinus fuscicollis and S. mystax . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31, 339–347 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00177774

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00177774

Keywords

Navigation