Uso de habitat de primatas em uma floresta de terra firme da Amazônia Central

Abstract

Fruit availability in tropical forests varies temporally and spatially due to seasonality and environmental heterogeneity, which can be partly explained by topographic variations. Frugivorous species, such as primates, can modulate the selection of habitat use due to this variation in resource availability. We used the resource selection functions (RSF) to evaluate habitat use of three primate species (Saguinus bicolor, Sapajus apella and Chiropotes sagulatus) in a lowland Amazon forest along a topographic gradient in two distinct seasons (dry and rainy). The three species showed differences in habitat use between the seasons. S. bicolor presented preferences for slope areas during rainy season, but uniformly in the dry season. S. apella and C. sagulatus segregated by habitat in the dry season, using valley and plateau, respectively, but used the habitat uniformly in the rainy season. Habitat segregation between S. apella and C. sagulatus is probably associated to differences in foraging strategies when food resources are scarcer. The use of valley by S. apella during this period is possibly related to the higher concentration of palm in these areas, an important food item for this species during fruit shortages. Likewise, the use plateau areas by C. sagulatus was probably associated to the presence of food items typically selected during the dry season. Here we elucidate some basic ecological information for three primate species, and show how RSF models aligned with topographic information can be a feasible tool to build predictive distribution maps to help primate conservation programs.