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Use of sleeping sites by a titi group (Callicebus coimbrai) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

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Abstract

Predation pressure affects most aspects of primate behaviour, and is especially pronounced in the context of the use of sleeping sites, given the vulnerability of the animal at this time. Most small-bodied platyrrhines have highly systematic patterns of sleeping site choice and use. This study analyses the use of sleeping sites by a free-ranging group of titis (Callicebus coimbrai) monitored at a site in Sergipe, Brazil, between July, 2009 and June, 2010. When the subjects approached a sleeping tree their behaviour was typically cautious, including slow and silent movement, early retirement (20–162 min before sunset on 52 dry afternoons), and sleeping in a tight huddle with their tails entwined. Despite this behaviour, which has an obvious anti-predator function, the group slept in only three different trees during the course of the study, and returned to the same tree used on the previous night on a quarter of evenings (n = 56). This was despite the availability within the group’s home range of a large number of trees with similar structural characteristics (i.e. tall, open crown in the upper canopy). Surprisingly, the three trees were all members of the same species, Licania littoralis (Chrysobalanaceae). The choice of this species, which was not an important source of dietary resources, and the repeated use of a small number of sites, did not seem to be related to factors such as ranging or foraging patterns, but may have a been a response to the specific threat from capuchins, Cebus xanthosternos.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), CNPq (processes no. 302747/2008-7 and 476064/2008-2), and the Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza (project # 0846_20092), and received logistic support from the Sergipe state environment secretariat (SEMARH) and the Brazilian National Primate Center (CPB-ICMBio). We would also like to thank Sr. Ary Ferreira, owner of Fazenda Trapsa, for supporting our research and José Elias “Bóia” and Renata Chagas for their assistance during fieldwork. We are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the first version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Program in Development and Environment, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brazil

    João Pedro Souza-Alves & Isadora P. Fontes

  2. Department of Biology, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, Brazil

    Stephen F. Ferrari

  3. Department of Systematics and Ecology, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Cidade Universitária, 58059-900, João Pessoa-Paraíba, Brazil

    João Pedro Souza-Alves

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  1. João Pedro Souza-Alves
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  2. Isadora P. Fontes
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  3. Stephen F. Ferrari
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Correspondence to João Pedro Souza-Alves.

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Souza-Alves, J.P., Fontes, I.P. & Ferrari, S.F. Use of sleeping sites by a titi group (Callicebus coimbrai) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Primates 52, 155–161 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-011-0235-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-011-0235-9

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