Fruits eaten by woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagothricha) at local and regional scales

Abstract

Woolly monkeys are endangered New World Primates whose natural ecological requirements are known from few sites. This study aimed to investigate the diet of woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagothricha, Atelidae) to examine how availability determines fruit choice at local and regional scales. We followed two groups of woolly monkeys in the Mosiro Itajura-Caparú biological station in the Colombian Amazon for 16 months, and then compared our observations with previous studies for this and other sites in the Amazon and eastern Andes. We found a high prevalence of fruits in the diet of woolly monkeys in Caparú, which was supplemented with arthropods and leaves. This pattern was observed in all age/sex classes, although juveniles ate more arthropods, and females with dependent young ate more leaves than other classes. We suggest these differences might be due to intragroup competition and particular nutritional requirements in each age/sex class. When comparing the fruit diet composition in Caparú (>190 species) with four other places, we found that Moraceae, Fabaceae, and Sapotaceae were consistently important tree families in the Amazonian sites, and that forest richness is a good predictor of the diet richness. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that woolly monkeys are opportunistic frugivores that are able to adapt their diet to the forest supply and to the temporal variation in resource availability.

Fruit availability drives the distribution of a folivorous–frugivorous primate within a large forest remnant

“…The relationship between their spatial distribution and the availability of fruit is compatible with such strategy. “Camping” behavior at productive fruit patches was also reported for other atelids [e.g., Alouatta palliata : Hopkins, ; A. caraya : Zunino, ; A. seniculus : Palacios & Rodríguez, ; Ateles belzebuth : Mourthé, ; Brachyteles arachnoides : Strier, ; B. hypoxanthus : Talebi & Lee, ; Lagothrix lagotricha : Di Fiore, ; Gonzalez, Clavijo, Betancur, & Stevenson, ], suggesting that it represents a common strategy for maximizing energy intake and/or monopolizing the access to valuable and highly seasonal foods.…”

Degree of Frugivory Predicts Rates of Food-Related Agonism and Intragroup Proximity in Wild Gray Woolly Monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha cana)

“…H1: If gray woolly monkeys in southwestern Brazilian Amazonia behave as generalized opportunistic frugivorous, similar to other woolly monkey populations (Gonzalez et al 2016), we predicted that the degree of frugivory would increase with increasing fruit availability (Gonzalez et al 2016;Peres 1994a;Stevenson, 2004). H2: If intragroup contest competition increases over access to preferred highquality foods such as fruit (Robbins 2008;Stevenson et al 1994;Vogel and Janson 2007), we predicted that the rates of agonistic interaction among wild gray woolly monkeys would be associated with fruit availability and/or the degree of frugivory.…”

“…For frugivorous primates with more eclectic diets, variation in grouping patterns can be attributed to variation in the availability of their preferred fruit sources. When fruits are seasonally scarce, they can shift their diets to include less preferred resources such as leaves, flowers, arthropods, and even small vertebrates (Cavalcante et al 2019 ; Di Fiore and Campbell 2007 ; Gonzalez et al 2016 ; Peres 1994a ; Stevenson et al 1994 ). For example, a small cohesive group of 24 common woolly monkeys ( Lagothrix lagotricha ) devoted up to 84% of its feeding time to fruit and 5% to arthropods at the Caparú Biological Station, eastern Colombia (Defler, 1996 ).…”

“…For example, a small cohesive group of 24 common woolly monkeys ( Lagothrix lagotricha ) devoted up to 84% of its feeding time to fruit and 5% to arthropods at the Caparú Biological Station, eastern Colombia (Defler, 1996 ). However, a larger group of up to 40 individuals at the same site was less frugivorous, sustaining diets of only up to 69% fruit, while arthropods represented 13% of the group’s diet (Gonzalez et al 2016 ).…”

“…Lastly, we assessed the effects of fruit availability and degree of frugivory on their rates of intragroup agonistic interactions (as a proxy for intragroup contest competition), and interindividual spacing behavior. Specifically, we tested four main hypotheses derived from basic socioecological models of intragroup feeding competition: H1: If gray woolly monkeys in southwestern Brazilian Amazonia behave as generalized opportunistic frugivorous, similar to other woolly monkey populations (Gonzalez et al 2016 ), we predicted that the degree of frugivory would increase with increasing fruit availability (Gonzalez et al 2016 ; Peres 1994a ; Stevenson, 2004 ). H2: If intragroup contest competition increases over access to preferred high-quality foods such as fruit (Robbins 2008 ; Stevenson et al 1994 ; Vogel and Janson 2007 ), we predicted that the rates of agonistic interaction among wild gray woolly monkeys would be associated with fruit availability and/or the degree of frugivory.…”