Nishikawa Mari, Ferrero Nuria, Cheves Saul, Lopez Ronald, Kawamura Shoji, Fedigan Linda M, Melin Amanda D, Jack Katharine M
Department of Integrated Biosciences Graduate School of Frontier Sciences The University of Tokyo Kashiwa Chiba Japan.
Área de Conservación Guanacaste Guanacaste Costa Rica.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Oct 16;10(23):12679-12684. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6901. eCollection 2020 Dec.
Cannibalism has been observed in a variety of animal taxa; however, it is relatively uncommon in primates. Thus, we rely heavily on case reports of this behavior to advance our understanding of the contexts under which it occurs. Here, we report the first observation of cannibalism in a group of wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (). The subject was a dead infant, estimated to be 10 days old, and the probable victim of infanticide. Consumption of the corpse was initiated by a 2-year-old male (second cousin of the infant), though it was eventually taken over and monopolized by the group's alpha female (grandaunt of the infant). Although most group members expressed interest in the corpse (sniffing, touching, and threatening it), no others made an attempt to consume it. Given that this is the only observation of cannibalism recorded in over 37 years of study on this population, we consider it to be a rare behavior in this species. This detailed record contributes new data, which, when combined with other reports within and across species and contexts, enables the evaluation of adaptive explanations of cannibalism.
在多种动物类群中都观察到了同类相食现象；然而，在灵长类动物中相对不常见。因此，我们严重依赖这种行为的案例报告来增进我们对其发生背景的理解。在此，我们报告了在一群野生白面卷尾猴中首次观察到的同类相食现象。对象是一只估计10天大的死亡幼崽，可能是杀婴行为的受害者。尸体的食用由一只2岁雄性（幼崽的二表亲）开始，但最终被群体中的优势雌性（幼崽的姑奶奶）接管并独占。尽管大多数群体成员对尸体表现出兴趣（嗅闻、触摸并对其构成威胁），但没有其他成员试图食用它。鉴于这是在对该种群超过37年的研究中记录到的唯一一起同类相食观察案例，我们认为这在该物种中是一种罕见行为。这一详细记录提供了新的数据，与物种内部和跨物种及不同背景下的其他报告相结合时，能够对同类相食的适应性解释进行评估。
