Abstract:
Understanding primate diet plasticity and what causes foraging variation
Primate Life
is crucial to understanding their ecology and evolution. Foraging choices are limited
Histories, Sex
by food availability, and primate diets may shift within and between years. How
Roles, and
primates respond to interannual variation and the extent of their dietary flexibility
Adaptability
are poorly known. White-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) have a diverse
(pp.
diet and are informative study subjects for investigating dietary shifts in response to
environmental variation. We investigate the phenological characteristics of plant
193–212).
foods and calculate monthly fruit production and probability of fruiting for
Springer
each dietary species and report on how capuchin foraging varies intra- and interan-
nually. We compare the dietary importance of foods consumed over two 1 year-long
sampling periods. Finally, we determine how food use changes seasonally by com-
paring biweekly diet variation. Most plant food species examined produce fruit sea-
sonally, although two important species are aseasonal. The overall biomass of
capuchin fruit foods varies considerably monthly and annually. During scan sam-
pling, capuchins were observed to consume 90 different plant food species across
24 months of study. Almost half of these plant foods were only consumed during
one of the two study years, but such foods accounted for only 10% of the plant diet.
Within 2-week periods, capuchins were typically reliant on one or two plant foods
(i.e., >50% of the diet for that period), but few plant foods were important for mul-
tiple periods. This study illustrates the importance of studying both food and forag-
ing characteristics at different scales and demonstrates the necessity of long-term
projects for interpreting foraging behaviour.
