| Dietary Diversity and Feeding Specializations of the Pitheciins Boubli, J.P., M. Norconk, L.M. Veiga & A.A. Barnett Three genera of platyrrhines comprise the Pitheciini (Cacajao, Chiropotes, and Pithecia) and all are strongly frugivorous. Seeds or fruit pulp range from 60% to > 95% of annual diets (n = 15 studies) and young or mature seeds comprise a relatively high proportion of the fruit in their diets (40% to 87.2% annually). However, most species represent 1% or less of the annual diet. Studies from Brazil and Venezuela suggest that only two to four fruit species comprise more than 30% of their annual diet. Top-ranked resources can be large, e.g., 75% of seeds ingested by black uacaris at Pico da Neblina were > 3 cm in diameter and 50% of fruit opened were > 5 cm in length. Physical characteristics of fruit ingested by the three pitheciin genera also converge among other physical parameters – fruits are frequently well protected with hard husks and are relatively cryptically colored in the ripe stage, 77% green or brown in one study. Thus a number of pitheciin feeding preferences signify divergence from other platyrrhine frugivores, including a strong preference for seeds instead of fruit pulp, preference for slowly maturing fruit and seeds available in the dry season, and the ability to occupy oligotrophic, species-poor forests (eg., of the Rio Negro/Orinoco basins) or habitats that are flooded for up to six months annually. voltar a programação do simpósio |