Elsevier

Journal of Human Evolution

Volume 18, Issue 7, November 1989, Pages 697-716
Journal of Human Evolution

Article
Comparative feeding ecology of the Uakari and Bearded Saki, Cacajao and Chiropotes

https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(89)90101-2Get rights and content

Abstract

The ecology of two closely related pitheciine monkeys, Cacajao calvus and Chiropotes albinasus, is reviewed, with an emphasis on their frugivorous feeding habits and the habitats they prefer. Although both consume a similar diet of young seeds of common plant taxa, they employ different foraging strategies. Chiropotes forages as a single unit in large multi-male/multi-female groups, whereas Cacajao aggregates split into parties of flexible subunits. These differences relate to their contrasting habitat preferences. Chiropotes live in the non-inundated terra firme forests and Cacajao live in the flooded várzea forests. Each habitat type is characterized by a distinctive taxonomic and spatial composition of local fruit trees, and they also contain different animal faunas. An attempt to reconstruct the evolutionary history of these monkeys is made, based upon the geomorphological evolution of the Amazoniau region.

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      In agreement with Boubli et al. (2008a,b,c), here we recovered a relatively recent date for this last cladogenetic event separating C. hosomi and C. ayresi (0.29 Ma, 95% HPD, 0.11–0.49) which, according to these authors might have been driven by competition with the bearded saki, Chiropotes israelita. Bearded sakis and uakaris are seed predators with similar body weights and are thought to occupy similar ecological niches (Ayres, 1989). Boubli et al. (2008a,b,c) suggest that bearded sakis expanded their distribution south from Venezuela in the late Pleistocene, splitting the range of the ancestral Cacajao population into two independently evolving units, i.e., C. ayresi and C. hosomi.

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