Florivory by Cebus capucinus: How variation in food abundance and colour vision affect foraging strategies.
Date
2015-01-23
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Abstract
Many primates consume flowers in small proportions annually but increase their use seasonally. Food used during “crunch” periods may exert selection pressure for traits that improve foraging efficiency. High quality foods are believed to select for detection and harvesting adaptations, including colour vision. This study was designed to determine what leads to flower consumption by white-faced capuchin monkeys, a species that has polymorphic colour vision and consumes flowers rarely, but in high proportions seasonally. I compared flower foraging behaviour to fruit, flower, and invertebrate abundance, and obtained nutritional and spectral reflectance data for all flower foods. Flowers were consumed in higher frequencies during periods of low invertebrate abundance. Flower foods are of relatively high nutritional quality, have chromatic properties predicted to be more visible to trichromats, and were consumed more frequently by trichromats, suggesting they may play a role in the evolution and maintenance of polymorphic colour vision.
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Anthropology--Physical, Ecology
Citation
Hogan, J. (2015). Florivory by Cebus capucinus: How variation in food abundance and colour vision affect foraging strategies. (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26189