Tecnociencia (Jun 2017)
USE OF ANVILS AND OTHER FEEDING BEHAVIOUR OBSERVED IN CEBUS IMITATOR, COIBA ISLAND, PANAMA
Abstract
Preliminary data of primate feeding behaviour on the continental island of Coiba was collected as a baseline study of feeding behaviour in Cebus imitatorat coastal sites. Coiba Island is located on the South Pacific side of Panama, in the Chiriquí Gulf. It is a continental island and the biggest in the Mesoamerican region of the Pacific, it has an area of 503 km². This is a preliminary survey to identify basic feeding behaviour that could be measured in the future as a part of our ethogram to study C. imitator, as part of our long-term project on Coiba Island. We identified four feeding skills by C. imitator outside the forest: Hammering shells or skilledpounding,removing rocks, eating mangrove fruits, and pounding Cocos nucifera on an anvil. Using anvils seemed to be the most effective method to obtain food spending 51% of the time eating using this technique and only 28% moving to find a coconut, 18% invested in pounding the fruit, and just 3% on keeping vigil. Spending time outside the coast of a continental island seemed to be a benefical technique for C. imitator to survive. Further studies will be conducted by Fundación Pro-Conservación de los Primates Panameños (FCPP) to understand the predation-feeding-competition theory its implications for foraging techniques by C.imitator in an island habitat.
