title: Capuchin monkeys (Cebus nigritus) use spatial and visual information during within-patch foraging.
abstract: Foraging in large-scale (navigation between patches), small-scale (choice of within-patch feeding sites), and micro-scale (close inspection of food items) space presents variable cognitive challenges. The reliability and usefulness of spatial memory and perceptual cues during food search in a forest environment vary among these spatial scales. This research applied an experimental field design to test the ability of a free-ranging group composed of eight black-horned capuchin monkeys, Cebus nigritus, inhabiting a forest fragment in Porto Alegre, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to use food-associated spatial, visual, olfactory, and quantitative (amount of food) cues during small-scale foraging decisions. The experimental design involved the establishment of a feeding station composed of eight feeding platforms distributed in a circular arrangement. A series of six experiments, each lasting 20 days, was conducted from March to August 2005. Two feeding platforms in each experimental session contained a food reward (real banana), whereas the remaining six platforms contained either a sham banana or an inaccessible real banana. Data on capuchin monkey foraging behavior at the feeding stations were collected by the "all occurrences" sampling method. The performance of the capuchins in the experiments was analyzed based on the first two platforms inspected in each session. The study group inspected feeding platforms in 571 occasions during 113 sessions. Capuchins used visual cues and spatial information (and adopted a win-return strategy) for finding the platforms baited with real bananas and showed weak evidence of the integration of spatial and quantitative cues, but failed to show evidence of using olfactory cues. In addition, individual differences in social rank and foraging behavior affected opportunities for learning and the performance in the cognitive tasks.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Primatologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Daniela Fichtner
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Júlio César
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bicca-Marques
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001938:Brazil; D002428:Cebus / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior