Ferrari Stephen F, Veiga Liza M, Urbani Bernardo
Department of Biology, Federal University of Sergipe, São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 2008;79(5):402-15. doi: 10.1159/000141901. Epub 2008 Jun 30.
Geophagy has been recorded in an increasing number of New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) over recent years, permitting a tentative analysis of ecological patterns. While geophagy has now been recorded in species representing all 4 platyrrhine families and a majority of genera, there is a marked tendency for it to occur in the larger-bodied Pitheciidae and Atelidae. Howlers (Alouatta) are responsible for almost a third of reports, which are concentrated in the more frugivorous species, Alouatta belzebul and Alouatta seniculus. Geophagy may also be relatively common in the spider monkeys (Ateles) and the pitheciids, which are specialised frugivores and seed predators, respectively. An overview of the available data points to a marked Amazonian bias, allowing for geographical differences in the number of species and field studies. This pattern is demonstrated most emphatically by Alouatta, for which there are almost as many reports as field studies in the Amazon basin, in stark contrast with Central American sites, which have a long tradition of fieldwork, but no published records of geophagy. There are also relatively few reports from the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Despite the growth in reports, and the patterns identified here, the functional aspects of geophagy in the platyrrhines still remain unclear.
近年来，越来越多的新大陆猴（阔鼻猴亚目）被记录到有食土行为，这使得对其生态模式进行初步分析成为可能。虽然现在已经在代表所有4个阔鼻猴科和大多数属的物种中记录到了食土行为，但在体型较大的僧面猴科和蜘蛛猴科中出现食土行为的趋势尤为明显。吼猴（蛛猴属）占了近三分之一的报告记录，这些报告集中在食果性更强的物种，如鬃毛吼猴和白领吼猴。食土行为在蜘蛛猴（蜘蛛猴属）和僧面猴中可能也相对常见，它们分别是专门的食果动物和种子捕食者。现有数据的概述表明存在明显的亚马逊地区偏向性，这体现在物种数量和实地研究的地理差异上。阿氏吼猴最能体现这种模式，在亚马逊流域，关于它的报告数量几乎与实地研究数量一样多，这与中美洲地区形成鲜明对比，中美洲有长期的实地考察传统，但却没有食土行为的公开记录。巴西大西洋森林地区的报告也相对较少。尽管报告数量有所增加，且本文确定了相关模式，但阔鼻猴食土行为的功能方面仍不清楚。
