ACTIVITY AND RANGING PATTERNS IN RELATION TO FRUIT UTILIZATION BY BROWN CAPUCHINS (CEBUS-APELLA) IN FRENCH-GUIANA

I studied brown capuchins (Cebus apella) in primary forest in French Guiana. They displayed different feeding and ranging patterns in response to changes in fruit availability and distribution. When fruit was scarce and patchily distributed foliage/stem feeding and invertebrate foraging was high, and capuchins limited their daily movement to < 2 km, focusing on large fruit patches. When fruit was in average supply and scattered throughout the forest, the proportions of foliage/stems and invertebrates in the diet decreased and the day range length increased to 2.8 km. When fruit was abundant and widespread, foliage/stems were rarely eaten, while invertebrate foraging increased, and the daily locomotor distance was reduced to 2 km.