Flexibility in Diets of Three Species of Costa Rican Primates

Abstract

Variability in diet and dietary overlap were documented for the three species of primates in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica (Ateles geoffroyi, Alouatta palliata, Cebus capucinus). All three species exhibited great flexibility in their diets, such that in 1 month a monkey species could be considered as having one type of diet (e.g. frugivorous), while in a subsequent month it would be classified as having a different type of diet (e.g. folivorous or insectivorous). It is suggested that such variability in diet and dietary overlap make it unlikely that competition just between these primate species was a strong selective pressure determining their diets.