Digging up food: excavation stone tool use by wild capuchin monkeys.
Sci Rep
; 7(1): 6278, 2017 07 24.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28740211
ABSTRACT
Capuchin monkeys at Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) usually forage on the ground for roots and fossorial arthropods, digging primarily with their hands but also using stone tools to loosen the soil and aid the digging process. Here we describe the stone tools used for digging by two groups of capuchins on SCNP. Both groups used tools while digging three main food resources Thiloa glaucocarpa tubers, Ocotea sp roots, and trapdoor spiders. One explanation for the occurrence of tool use in primates is the "necessity hypothesis", which states that the main function of tool use is to obtain fallback food. We tested for this, but only found a positive correlation between plant food availability and the frequency of stone tools' use. Thus, our data do not support the fallback food hypothesis for the use of tools to access burrowed resources.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Artrópodes
/
Cebus
/
Raízes de Plantas
/
Ingestão de Alimentos
/
Comportamento de Utilização de Ferramentas
/
Abastecimento de Alimentos
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article