Abstract
Animals’ space use patterns present dynamic responses to the availability of the main food resources that vary on different temporal and spatial scales. Although it is recognized that the interplay between main food resources shapes movement patterns in primates, few studies have simultaneously assessed the impact of fruit and arthropod supply on the ranging patterns of a frugivorous-insectivorous primate. Here, we studied the influence of ripe fruit and arthropod supply on six different ranging behavioral responses—daily distance traveled, home range size, backtracking, turning angles, travel speed, and arthropod-foraging speed—by a group of wild tufted-capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) in the Colombian amazon forest, during 1 year. Two approaches were considered: first, we compared the ranging patterns between periods in which ripe fruits and arthropods were abundant with periods of scarcity of both resources; second, we built models to test if predictor variables related to fruit and arthropod availability could explain each one of the ranging behavior variables. Group ranging patterns were larger or tended to be larger during periods of both food resources scarcity, suggesting that capuchins expand their movements throughout their home range in search for food as a response to the combined low food availability. Fruit supply was an influential factor for the daily path length and, marginally, for travel speed, with shorter distances related to a high density of fruiting trees and the capuchins’ tendency to travel to the nearest food source. Arthropod-capture success rate determined the turning angles and the arthropod-foraging speed, with tortuous and faster travels during low prey availability, related to a meticulous and fine-scaled search. There were not conclusive results for backtracking and home range size. Our results showed that the study group modified its ranging behavior according to the supply of their two main food resources, fruits and arthropods; in general, variation in large-scale travels throughout its home range reflected a frugivorous diet, while variation in small-scale movements revealed an insectivorous one.
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Acknowledgments
Research funding was provided by Fundación Natura/COLCIENCIAS.Special thanks to Thomas Defler, director of this project, for his constant support and advice and for the tireless dedication to the study of Colombian primates. To Michael Alberico (†), co-director of this work, for his advice and help. To Conservation International Colombia, for the support provided, especially to Erwin Palacios and Adriana Rodríguez. To Marcelino Días and family, Jaime Castillo, and Ángela Maldonado, for their support in the field. To Isidoro Cabrera and Rodrigo Botina, for the identification of the plant material. To Marcia Muñoz Neyra, for her collaboration in the revision of this document.
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Gómez-Posada, C., Rey-Goyeneche, J., Tenorio, E.A. (2019). Ranging Responses to Fruit and Arthropod Availability by a Tufted Capuchin Group (Sapajus apella) in the Colombian Amazon. In: Reyna-Hurtado, R., Chapman, C. (eds) Movement Ecology of Neotropical Forest Mammals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03463-4_12
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