Variaciones estacionales en el consumo de pinos (Pinus taeda) por monos caí (Sapajus nigritus): comprendiendo las causas del comportamiento de descortezado

ZARATE, VALENTIN; TOGRE, IARA; PETRACCHINI, SARA; TUJAGUE, MARÍA PAULA; DOMINGUEZ, G. ; AGSOTINI, I. ; DI BITETTI, MARIO SANTIAGO

Eldorado, Misiones

Jornada; XIX Jornadas técnicas forestales y ambientales; 2023

Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Nacional de Misiones

Primates sometimes bark-strip trees in plantations to consume their phloem. However, thereis a lack of evidence-supported hypotheses that explain this behavior. Focusing on blackcapuchins monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) that bark-strip pines (Pinus taeda) in northeasternArgentina, we tested the hypothesis that phloem of pines is a seasonally profitable resourcefor some primates. Our findings reveal that during the transition from winter to spring,capuchins exhibit increased frequency of bark-stripping (1), pine bark is easier to remove (2),and phloem is thicker (3). These results provide support for the seasonal profitabilityhypothesis as an explanation for primates’ bark-stripping behavior.