A escolha do alimento por bugios-ruivo (Alouatta clamitans, Primates, Cabrera, 1940) e muriquis-do-sul (Brachyteles arachnoides, Primates, e Geoffroy, 1806): composição da dieta e resistência à fratura de itens alimentares

• Ano de defesa: 2014
• Autor(a) principal: Andrade, Enrico Sala de [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de São Paulo
• Palavras-chave em Português: Brachyteles arachnoides; Alouatta clamitans; Diet composition; Physical properties; Toughness; Composição da dieta; Propriedades físicas; Resistência à fratura
• Link de acesso: https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/coleta/trabalhoConclusao/viewTrabalhoConclusao.jsf?popup=true&id_trabalho=1732932; https://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/46338

Food plants have chemical and physical defence mechanisms to avoid herbivory whereas primary consumers have adaptations to cross this barrier so as to reach their specific nutritional requirements. Southern Muriquis (Brachyteles archnoides) and Brown Howlers (Alouatta clamitans) are primates essentially herbivorous and have adaptations related to folivory and frugivory. Toughness is a physical property of food that describes the difficulty of propagating a fracture on some material. It is assessed by animals during biting and when indicate the digestibility of food (fiber content) probably passively influences the food selection by primates. This study verified if toughness influenced the food choice of Southern Muriquis and Brown howlers. Behavior informations about activity patterns of the studied species was collected using the scan sampling method (sample period of 10 minutes and, sampling interval of 5 minutes). It was calculated from activity patterns data, the diet composition by time spent feeding (TSF) on each consumed food type (fruits, leaves and flowers, both immature and mature). Sampling were conducted on rainy and dry seasons over four periods (December 2012 and October 2013, rainy, and also in May 2013 and August 2013, dry) on Carlos Botelho State Park (PECB, 24°06 e 24°14 S e 47°47 e 48°07 O) (in situ). Beside, samplings of food preferences of two females of Alouatta clamitans and two males of Alouatta caraya were conducted at Fundação Parque Zoológico de São Paulo (FPZSP), São Paulo-SP. Ten specimens of each food consumed by the animals were tested to get toughness values using a portable tester. The Chapter I of this dissertation presents the activity patterns and diet in situ whereas in Chapter II are presented the toughness values of the different food types consumed by the studied primates (in situ and ex situ). For activity patterns and diet, it was observed that feeding was the second most common activity performed (33.4% Muriqui; 30.3% Howlers) and the food type ?fruit?, rather mature ones, the most often chosen for both species. The highest proportion of fruit observed, indicative of frugivory, probably reflects the high-quality habitat of the primates, with proper availability of fruits over the annual cycle. For toughness of foods, it was observed that there is no apparent preference for a specific toughness range, but toughness seems to influence Howlers (particularly leaves) more than Muriquis in their food choice: Howlers consumed leaves with higher toughness values than Muriquis. For fruits and flowers, Howlers presented a trend to avoid consume food types with high toughness values, whereas for Muriquis, some foods with this feature were consumed in high proportion. Thus, this study suggests that toughness is relevant parameter in the study of food preferences of Brown Howlers and Southern Muriquis, especially to folivory, and probably herbivory.