The use of memory in Pithecia pithecia's foraging strategy.
Item
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Title
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The use of memory in Pithecia pithecia's foraging strategy.
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Identifier
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AAI3083652
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identifier
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3083652
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Creator
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Cunningham, Elena P.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Karyl B. Swartz
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Date
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2003
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Physical | Biology, Ecology
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Abstract
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The present research investigates memory and foraging decisions in white-faced saki monkeys (Pithecia pithecia). The study consists of the results of observations of wild sakis on an island in Lago Guri, Venezuela and of experiments with captive sakis at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island. The majority of field and captive studies into use of memory to increase foraging success have focused on primates, who in their natural environment, inhabit large home ranges and forage on patchily distributed food. The observed group, however, inhabited a small home range. They traveled short distances between feeding bouts, most of which were brief. A few times a day, however, the sakis had longer feeding bouts in highly productive trees.;The sakis' diet consisted primarily of fruit. During the study, the availability of fruit decreased sharply. Results of logistic regressions and two computer models showed that, when fruit was abundant, the direction of sakis' travel was not determined by the nearest trees, but by distant, preferred resources. The results support the hypothesis that sakis use memory to locate resources and that they consider the value of a resource when making travel decisions. When fruit was scarce, the sakis had twice as many feeding bouts and bouts were shorter. The results of the computer model indicated that the sakis were searching for food.;The results of the experiments at the Roger Williams Park Zoo indicated that the adult sakis used long-term memory to forage efficiently. The monkeys were able to remember the locations of baited containers for 120 days. They were able to learn the locations of containers baited with larger rewards. Juveniles performed at chance levels in both tasks.;The wild sakis' use of memory varied depending on ecological conditions. Use of memory was not evident during a period of fruit scarcity. During periods of fruit abundance, the sakis were willing to travel further for more productive trees. They may have followed this strategy to reduce feeding competition within the group while maintaining the group's cohesion.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
