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ogy, A.B. Rylands (ed.), pp. 263–271. Oxford University
Press, Oxford.
Sick, H. 1997. Famílias e espécies: ordem Columbiformes.
In: Ornitologia Brasileira, J. F. Pacheco (ed.), pp. 341–
350. Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro.
Stevenson, M. F. and Rylands, A.B. 1988. The marmosets,
genus Callithrix. In: Ecology and behavior of Neotropical
primates, Mittermeier, R.A., Rylands, A.B., Coimbra-Filho, A. and Fonseca, G.A.B. (eds.), pp.131–222. WWF,
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Biol. 64: 363–370.
OBSERVATION OF BLACK-CAPPED CAPUCHINS
(CEBUS APELLA) FEEDING ON AN OWL MONKEY
(AOTUS BRUMBACKI) IN THE COLOMBIAN LLANOS
Xyomara Carretero-Pinzón
Thomas R. Defler
Stephen F. Ferrari
Black-capped capuchins (Cebus apella) are known to feed
on a wide variety of vertebrate prey, including lizards,
frogs, birds, bats, marsupials, rodents, and squirrels (Izawa,
1978, 1990; Terborgh, 1983; Galetti, 1990; Rímoli, 2001;
Resende et al., 2003; Defler, 2004), although to date, there
is only one report involving another primate, an infant titi,
Callicebus moloch (Sampaio & Ferrari, 2005). Here we
describe the behavior of a group of black-capped capuchins
feeding on an adult female owl monkey (Aotus brumbacki)
in a fragment of gallery forest in the Colombian Llanos.
This appeared to be the scavenging of a carcass, rather than
a predation event, but the observation nevertheless emphasizes the potential of the capuchins for the exploitation of
prey this size.
The event was recorded during the long-term monitoring
(September 2005 to January 2007) of a group of 43 squirrel monkeys, Saimiri sciureus albigena (Carretero-Pinzón,
2008) on the Arrayanes Farm (3°3’30”N, 73°35’40”W)
near San Martín in the Colombian Llanos, department of
Meta (Fig. 1). The group occupied a matrix of small fragments of gallery forest of up to 21 ha, including those on
the neighboring Santa Rosa Farm, that are interconnected
by fences. We collected quantitative behavioral data in
scan samples (one minute scans at five minute intervals),
and whenever an association was formed with the local
group of Cebus apella [during 28.3% of monitoring time
(1,113 hours of total observation time)]. We also collected
data on the members of this group (1 adult male, 1 adult
female, 2 juveniles, and 1 infant) using the same sampling
schedule. During the event reported here we abandoned
this schedule and the capuchins were monitored continuously for the first half hour and then at five-minute inter-
vals, until the carcass was abandoned.
On the morning of January the 12th, 2006, when the
squirrel monkeys and capuchins were foraging together
in a mixed troop at approximately 08:35, the adult male
C. apella apparently found a dead female owl monkey
(Aotus brumbacki) in a tree hole. The assumption that the
capuchin found the owl monkey rather than captured it
alive is based on the lack of visible or audible evidence of
hunting activity or prey capture. On finding the carcass,
the adult male became visibly excited, and emitted feeding vocalizations, that were answered in kind by the four
other group members, who then approached to a distance
of 3-5 m from the tree-hole, from where they observed the
male. The male pulled the owl monkey’s legs out of the
hole and began biting, tearing and eating the flesh of one
of the legs. The male was the only individual to feed on the
carcass during the first eight minutes, but then he moved
to a neighboring tree to rest and looked on as the other
group members moved in to feed. The adult female and
the infant fed on the second leg; then one of the juveniles
pulled the carcass out of the hole as far as its neck, bit off
the right radius and hand, and ran to the neighboring tree
to consume these parts. The four individuals each spent
some 8-10 minutes feeding on different parts of the carcass.
Tolerance and sharing appears to be typical of vertebrate
predation in the capuchins (e.g. Perry and Rose, 1994;
Resende et al., 2003), at least where relatively large-bodied
prey is concerned (Izawa, 1978). After approximately 20
minutes, the adult male returned to feed on the carcass in
close proximity with the infant, while vocalizing aggressively towards the female, who responded submissively
and moved to a neighboring tree. The infant eventually
joined the female to be groomed, and one juvenile rested
nearby while the other foraged for arthropods. All five
group members ingested parts of the owl monkey’s limbs,
tail or dorsal musculature, but, while one of the juveniles
probed the abdomen with its hand, none of the capuchins
appeared to feed on the intestines or internal organs. Curiously, Resende et al. (2003) recorded the opposite pattern
in the predation of a rat by C. apella, where the soft parts
were consumed and the musculature ignored. In the pres-
Figure 1. Location of the study area, showing the main fragments
of gallery forest on the Arrayanes (16 ha) and Santa Rosa (21 ha)
farms in the Colombian Llanos.
63
Neotropical Primates 15(2), August 2008
ent case, the freshness of the carcass was possibly a factor –
the time of death was not known, but presumably preceded
the scavenging by at least a few hours. After approximately
one hour of intermittent feeding and resting, the capuchins
abandoned the carcass as vultures began to arrive at the
scene. The remains of the owl monkey’s body – the skeleton and some fragments of skin – were found at the same
location two days later. The capuchins moved through this
area in the interim, but they did not approach the carcass.
Capuchins are highly resourceful and opportunistic primates, able to exploit a wide variety of foods, so in this
sense, the events observed here were well within the behavioral potential of the species. As it appears that the body of
the owl monkey was scavenged, rather than captured alive,
it still remains unclear whether capuchins would normally,
if ever, prey on adult primates the size of Aotus, which have
a body weight of approximately 1 kg. The only record of a
capuchin predation of another primate involved an infant
titi (Sampaio and Ferrari, 2005), and predation of terrestrial mammals by capuchins has involved either smallbodied rodents or the infants of larger-bodied species, such
as coatis and opossums (Newcomer and De Farcy, 1985;
Rose and Perry, 1994; Resende et al., 2003; Fragaszy et
al., 2004). In this context, it is interesting to note that
Saimiri, which associates systematically with Cebus during
foraging at many sites – including the present one – is
actually slightly smaller than both Aotus and Callicebus.
Even so, there appear to be no reports of capuchins actively
pursuing or preying on squirrel monkeys, even juveniles.
In addition to other factors, in the specific case of Saimiri,
the potential benefits of predation may be more than outweighed by those of the foraging association (Terborgh,
1983; Boinski, 1996).
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Sanchez-Rey and Novoa families,
owners of the Santa Rosa and Arrayanes farms, for their
hospitality and logistic support. We also thank Germán
Espinosa and Yolima González for their support in the
field, and Dr Akisato Nishimura, professors Martha Bueno
and Carolina Gómez for their contributions, Liz Tyson for
her review of the text and an anonymous reviewer for their
comments.
Xyomara Carretero-Pinzón, Maestría en Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia,
e-mail: <xyocarretero@yahoo.es>, xcarretero@gmail.com,
Thomas R. Defler, Departamento de Biología, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, e -mail:
<thomasdefler@gmail.com>, thomasdefler@hotmail.com,
and Stephen F. Ferrari, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, São Cristóvão, Brazil, e-mail:
<ferrari@pq.cnpq.br>
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DENSIDAD POBLACIONAL Y TAMAÑO DE GRUPO DE
SAGUINUS LEUCOPUS EN PARCHES DE BOSQUE EN EL
DEPARTAMENTO DE CALDAS, COLOMBIA
Néstor Roncancio Duque
William Rojas Vinasco
Jaime Vicente Estévez Varón
Introducción
Por motivos históricos, geográficos y ecológicos, la mayoría
de la población humana en Colombia está concentrada en
la región Andina y en la planicie Caribe. En consecuencia,
estas regiones son las más afectadas por la transformación