Use of sleeping sites by a titi group (Callicebus coimbrai) in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Predation pressure affects most aspects of primate behaviour, and is especially pronounced in the context of the use of sleeping sites, given the vulnerability of the animal at this time. Most small-bodied platyrrhines have highly systematic patterns of sleeping site choice and use. This study analyses the use of sleeping sites by a free-ranging group of titis (Callicebus coimbrai) monitored at a site in Sergipe, Brazil, between July, 2009 and June, 2010. When the subjects approached a sleeping tree their behaviour was typically cautious, including slow and silent movement, early retirement (20-162min before sunset on 52 dry afternoons), and sleeping in a tight huddle with their tails entwined. Despite this behaviour, which has an obvious anti-predator function, the group slept in only three different trees during the course of the study, and returned to the same tree used on the previous night on a quarter of evenings (n=56). This was despite the availability within the group's home range of a large number of trees with similar structural characteristics (i.e. tall, open crown in the upper canopy). Surprisingly, the three trees were all members of the same species, Licania littoralis (Chrysobalanaceae). The choice of this species, which was not an important source of dietary resources, and the repeated use of a small number of sites, did not seem to be related to factors such as ranging or foraging patterns, but may have a been a response to the specific threat from capuchins, Cebus xanthosternos.