PRIMATES

Primates in the field: Platyrrhina


NOTE:   In Campbell's book, look at all the color plates in the middle of the book.
  • GENERAL:
    • HOME RANGE:   Just for comparison:
      • WSU campus is about 19 hectares in area (so 100 Ha is over 5x larger)
      • New York's Central Park is about 350 hectares
      • A circle with a one mile radius encloses about 815 hectares
      • the city limits of Worcester include about 10,000 hectares, or 100 km2
    • PATH LENGTH: 1000 m = Ghosh to May St. bldg.


  • 7 CALLITRICHIDAE (marmosets, tamarins):
    • Tropical, mostly Amazon basin
    • Diet: Gums ("exudates"), insects (+ small vert.); also fruits, nectar, fungus
    • Reproduction: Ovulation but few births while in natal family;
          subordinate females have low fertility; thus selection for dominant females (some infanticide)
    • Mating systems vary: sometimes polyandry or polygynandry   (unlike most primates)
    • High cost of maternal care (?size ratio); lots of allomothering
    • Mustaches, eyebrows, tufts and other facial markings common (visual recognition)

  • 8 CEBINAE (Cebus, Saimiri):
    • Tropical, incl. Amazon Basin
    • Cebus = capuchin (larger)-- "habitat generalists"; group size ~20
    • Saimiri = squirrel monkey (smaller)-- more restricted to lowland tropical forests; group size varies 15-75
    • Quadrupedal, IM ~80-90
    • Frugivorous + insectivorous;   lots of difficult food (using stones to crack nuts, etc.)
    • Often in mixed-species groups; benefits Saimiri because Cebus detects predators better and vocalizes to alert others.
    • Male dispersal / female philopatry (like Old World monkeys, unlike other Platyrrhina)
    • Friendship and grooming behavior, esp. by females

  • 9 PITHECIINAE (seed predators): Saki, Uakari, Titi
    • Northern So. America
    • Bright naked face markings (visually distinct)
    • Lots of seeds, also fleshy fruits, leaves

  • 10 AOTINAE (night monkeys = owl monkeys = dourocouli):
    • Tropical, mostly Amazon basin, also into Panama
    • Only nocturnal anthropoid
    • Mostly frugivorous but hard to study at night so other food poorly known
    • Serial monogamy
    • Biparental care (high male investment: play, carrying, grooming)

  • 11 ATELINAE + ALOUATTINAE (Campbell combines them; many others separate them)
    • Brachyteles in Uruguay and southern Brazil; all others from Amazon basin into Central America
    • Fission-fusion societies
    • Suspensory locomotion: semibrachiation, brachiation, clambering
    • Howlers LOUD and sexually dimorphic; others usu. monomorphic
    • Often: male philopatry, female dispersal
    • Diets: fruits (pref. ripe) + leaves; seasonally variable
    • Females solicit copulation from males, often outside ovulatory period
    • Some convergence (in locomotion, social groupings) with great apes
    • C.R. Carpenter: pioneering field studies on Barro Colorado (island in Panama Canal Zone): river crossings, etc.



syllabus