Lins Poliana Gabriele Alves de Souza, Ferreira Renata Gonçalves
Psychobiology Graduation Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil.
Rua Doutor Antonio Arecipo, 46, Gruta de Lourdes, Maceió, AL, 57052-870, Brazil.
Primates. 2019 Jan;60(1):81-91. doi: 10.1007/s10329-018-0698-z. Epub 2018 Nov 21.
Shifting to fallback food (FBF) consumption and crop raiding are behavioral adjustments that support primates' ability to endure in human-altered habitats. Nutritional models predict that the consumption of preferred foods leads to increased competition, while consumption of staple fallback foods results in decreased competition. We analyzed the competitive regime faced by individuals in a group of 133 blond capuchin monkeys (Sapajus flavius), an endangered species that inhabits a 270-ha fragment of Atlantic forest in northeast Brazil. During the study year, quantitative analyses show that fruits were a preferred food, while sugarcane was used as a staple FBF. As predicted by primate fallback foraging models, the consumption of sugarcane helped the group to survive in this fragment by providing these animals with half of the food they consumed throughout the year. Contrary to predictions, group dispersion increased with greater fruit abundance, while direct competition peaked during the consumption of sugarcane. We suggest that, although it is abundant and scattered in the area, the long handling time required to process sugarcane before consumption facilitates the direct competition. Overall, the pattern found indicates that consumption of a staple FBF does not directly translate into decreased competition and increased stability of social groups in forest fragments.
转向食用替代食物（FBF）和掠夺农作物是行为上的调整，有助于灵长类动物在人类改变的栖息地中生存。营养模型预测，食用偏好食物会导致竞争加剧，而食用主要替代食物会使竞争减少。我们分析了一群133只金毛卷尾猴（Sapajus flavius）个体所面临的竞争机制，该物种是濒危物种，栖息在巴西东北部一片270公顷的大西洋森林碎片中。在研究年份，定量分析表明，水果是偏好食物，而甘蔗被用作主要替代食物。正如灵长类动物替代觅食模型所预测的那样，甘蔗的食用通过为这些动物提供全年所消耗食物的一半，帮助该群体在这片森林碎片中生存下来。与预测相反的是，随着水果丰度增加，群体分散程度上升，而在食用甘蔗期间直接竞争达到峰值。我们认为，尽管甘蔗在该地区数量丰富且分布分散，但食用前处理甘蔗所需的较长操作时间加剧了直接竞争。总体而言，所发现的模式表明，食用主要替代食物并不会直接转化为竞争减少以及森林碎片中社会群体稳定性的增加。
