Forest type affects prey foraging of saddleback tamarins, Saguinus nigrifrons

Denis Kupsch,Eckhard W Heymann,Matthias Waltert

doi:10.1007/s10329-014-0416-4

Denis Kupsch, Eckhard W Heymann + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-014-0416-4

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Journal: Primates	Publication Date: Apr 1, 2014
Citations: 24	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: German Primate Center, University of Göttingen

Abstract

Callitrichids can persist in secondary forests where they may benefit from elevated prey abundance. However, how tamarins forage for prey in secondary forest compared to primary forest has not been examined. Using scan and focal sampling, we compared prey foraging and capture success of two groups of Saguinus nigrifrons in north-eastern Peru: one ranging in primary forest, the other with access to a 10-year-old anthropogenic secondary forest. There was a trend for more prey search in the secondary forest, but prey feeding, capture success and size were lower compared to the primary forest. Tamarins avoided the forest floor, used vertical supports less often and searched on a lower variety of substrates in the secondary forest. In the secondary forest, tamarins did not capture flushed prey, which make up a substantial part of the total prey captures biomass in primary forests. Reduced prey capture success is unlikely to reflect reduced prey availability, since more Orthoptera were found in secondary forest through ultrasonic surveys. Therefore, the prey search activity of S. nigrifrons in young secondary forests seemed rather opportunistic, presumably influenced by altered predation patterns, vegetation structure, as well as prey diversity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10329-014-0416-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Human activities increasingly affect natural forest ecosystems of the tropics (Wright and Muller-Landau 2006; FAO 2007)
Timber harvesting and agriculture push back primary rain forests, and land abandonment causes the development of secondary forest ecosystems (Wright 2005), which differ in structure and species composition (Johns 1997; Laurance 2007)
Our results represent one of the first attempts to evaluate the utilization of young secondary forest by Saguinus nigrifrons under the perspective of prey foraging

Summary

Introduction

Human activities increasingly affect natural forest ecosystems of the tropics (Wright and Muller-Landau 2006; FAO 2007). As secondary forests become more prevalent in the tropics, it is of increasing importance to explore their inherent ecosystem processes as well as community compositions and whether they meet the ecological importance of primary forests (Daily 2001; Vandermeer and Perfecto 2007; Liebsch et al 2008). This is especially true in the light of the current biodiversity crisis, which is primarily linked to habitat conversion (Pimm et al 1995; Laurance and Wright 2009). If we are to understand the ecology and conservation value of secondary forests, their suitability for vertebrates needs to be assessed (e.g. Gray et al 2007; Barlow et al 2007b)

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