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Dry Season Resources and Their Relationship with Owl Monkey (Aotus azarae) Feeding Behavior, Demography, and Life History

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Abstract

Limited food resource availability during yearly dry seasons can influence population dynamics and direct life-history evolution. We examined actual food production during two dry seasons and its relationship to feeding, life history, and demography in territorial, monogamous, and pair-living owl monkeys (Aotus azarae azarae). To quantify food availability in 16.25 ha of gallery forest in the Argentinean Chaco, we collected phenological data, from dry season fruit sources (N = 894), twice a month, during July and August of 2008 and 2009. At the same time, we collected feeding data from the four groups (N = 1448 h) inhabiting that forest portion. We also examined demographic data on births, natal dispersal, and group size. Our data show that owl monkeys occupy territories, and core areas, that produce food consistently, even during harsh times. Following the 2009 drought, less fruit was available than in 2008, but the 50 % core areas produced fruit amounts comparable to the 80 % territories. Owl monkeys showed dietary flexibility; fruits were the most frequent food item in 2008, whereas all groups increased their consumption of leaves in 2009. Infant production was lower in 2008 than after the drought of 2009. Interbirth intervals between the 2 yr were longer than the mean for the population, and more individuals dispersed in 2008 than in 2009. Our study suggests that owl monkeys occupy territories that provide similar amounts of reliable dry season foods within the core areas. Although access to these core areas may allow them to overcome severe dry seasons, our findings underscored the difficulties of understanding the potential causal relationships between ecological factors and demographic and life-history parameters.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the field assistants and students who collected ranging data, foraging data, and phenology data during 2008 and 2009. Discussions with A. Di Fiore contributed substantially to the development of the study and implementation of data collection methodologies. Many thanks also go to V. Dávalos, D. Iriart, M. Rotundo, and other Argentinean field assistants who helped examining 16.25 ha of forest for structure and composition and/or phenology. We thank the managers of Estancia Guaycolec and Bellamar Estancias S.A. for their continuous support. The Ministerio de la Producción, Subsecretaría de Ecología and Recursos Naturales from Formosa Province and the Dirección de Fauna Silvestre de la Nación Argentina authorized and sponsored the field research reported here. We thank J. E. Lambert, J. Setchell, and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. E. Fernandez-Duque gratefully acknowledges continuing financial support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Science Foundation (BCS-640 0621020, BCS-837921, BCS-904867, BCS-924352).

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  1. Fundación ECO, Formosa, Argentina

    Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

  2. CECOAL-Conicet, Corrientes, Argentina

    Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

  4. Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA

    Griëtte van der Heide

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Fernandez-Duque, E., van der Heide, G. Dry Season Resources and Their Relationship with Owl Monkey (Aotus azarae) Feeding Behavior, Demography, and Life History. Int J Primatol 34, 752–769 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-013-9689-5

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