Melin, Amanda D.Fedigan, Linda MarieWilliamson, Rachel Elaine2019-09-242019-09-242019-09-20Williamson, 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.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111055Permanent 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.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.niche divergenceintraspecific variationforaging ecologyage differencessex differencesAnthropologyEcologyZoologymaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/37117