Oropendola nest predation and rodent consumption by the black-capped capuchin (<i>Sapajus apella</i>) in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru

Abstract


 
 
 Capuchins (Cebus and Sapajus spp.) are generalist primates, occurring in most Neotropical forest types where they forage opportunistically (Sabbatini et al., 2008; Lynch Alfaro et al., 2012; Boubli et al., 2020). They exploit a diverse variety of food sources, such as fruit, seeds, arthropods and a wide array of vertebrate prey (Rose, 1997; Albuquerque et al., 2014; Watts, 2020). Their foraging strategy is highly resourceful and adaptive, and they are often considered important predators of nests (Canale and Bernardo, 2016; Watts, 2020), including those of caiman (Torralvo et al., 2017), coatis (Rose, 1997; Ferrari, 2009) and especially of birds (Watts, 2020). In this work, we report observations of a foraging event by the black-capped capuchin, Sapajus apella (Linnaeus, 1758), a widely distributed platyrrhine species, common across much of the Amazon basin (Boubli et al., 2020). This report involves the first record of nest predation of the russet-backed oropendola, Psarocolius angustifrons (von Spix, 1824), by a primate, as well as the predation of arboreal rice rats, Oecomys sp. (Thomas, 1906).