Biologia geral

Biologia Geral e Experimental
Universidade Federal de Sergipe Biol. Geral Exper., São Cristóvão, SE 7(1):19-28 13.ix.2007

NOTES ON THE REPRODUCTION, BEHAVIOUR AND DIET OF SAGUINUS NIGER (PRIMATES: CALLITRICHIDAE) IN A FOREST REMNANT AT THE NATIONAL PRIMATE CENTRE, ANANINDEUA, PARÁ

Suleima do Socorro Bastos da Silva¹ Stephen Francis Ferrari²

ABSTRACT This study presents data on the reproduction, behaviour and diet of a free-ranging group of black-handed tamarins, Saguinus niger, in an urbanised forest at the National Primate Centre in Ananindeua, eastern Brazilian Amazonia. The study group contained between five and seven members, changing due to the disappearance of an adult and the births of three infants. Quantitative behavioural data were collected in scan samples during five days each month between May and September 2000, covering the transition between wet and dry seasons. The general activity budget (n = 935 records) was 58.7% locomotion, 16.2% feed, 10.1% rest, 9.7% forage, and 5.3% social behaviour/others. During foraging, subjects spent 83.9% of their time scanning visually for signs of prey, and only 16.1% manipulating substrates. The diet was frugivorous-insectivorous, with 94.2% of feeding records involving fruit, and 5.8% insects. Nine of the plant species were identified, four of which were previously unrecorded for S. niger. All the identified insect prey were orthopterans. The group spent most of its time in the middle to lower forest strata moving on substrates of small diameter. Despite the overall limitations of the data collected, then, the study group exhibited typical tamarin patterns of behaviour, and was clearly well adapted to conditions at the study site, despite the degree of habitat disturbance. Key words: Saguinus niger, behaviour, ecology, diet, habitat fragmentation, Amazonia.

RESUMO Este estudo apresenta dados sobre a reprodução, o comportamento e a dieta de um grupo silvestre de Saguinus niger, em um fragmento florestal