Intraspecific niche divergence in foraging and habitat use in wild Costa Rican capuchin monkeys
Date
2019-09-20
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Permanent social grouping, while rare among mammals, is routine in primates. Group-living increases intraspecific foraging competition, but niche divergence, i.e. differences in food selection and microhabitat use, may help mitigate competition. I investigated whether niche divergence occurs in wild white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) based on their age and/or sex classes and found that: 1) immature monkeys spent more foraging time on fruits and embedded invertebrates than adults. Females spent more time on fruits than males, but males foraged more on embedded invertebrates and difficult-to-process fruits; 2) immatures and males foraged more in the lower canopy; 3) adults and males foraged more on the forest floor; 4) immatures and females foraged more on small branches; and 5) immatures foraged more on angled branches. These results indicate that age- and sex-specific patterns are present. This likely reduces the experience of intraspecific foraging competition and may help facilitate group-living.
Description
Keywords
niche divergence, intraspecific variation, foraging ecology, age differences, sex differences
Citation
Williamson, R. E. (2019). Intraspecific niche divergence in foraging and habitat use in wild Costa Rican capuchin monkeys (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.