Student Prize Award Abstract
2000 Poster Paper Honorable Mention

CALLIMICO GOEDLII: UNDERSTORY MONKEYS OF NORTHERN BOLIVIA

L. M. Porter
Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Goeldi's monkeys (Callimico goeldii) are understory specialists in their models for travel, substrate use and diet. Data are collected on one group of habituated Goeldi's monkeys in northern Bolivia from March, 1998-April, 1999. They are most commonly observed at heights between 0-5mm (80% of all scans). They travel principally by vertical clinging and leaping (46% of all travel), and quadrupedally along lianas and branches (30% of all travel). During travel, small tree trunks (DBH < 8cm) are the most common substrates used (39% of all scans), but small branches are also used frequently (33% of all scans). Although they descend to the ground to retrieve food items, they never stay on the ground to feed or rest. Goeldi's monkeys have traditionally been considered bamboo specialists but they are found infrequently in true bamboo forest (10% of all scans). They spend the most time in primary forest with dense understory (76% of all scans), a habitat that provides them with fungus, an important food resource. Fungus comprises, 28% of their diet and is obtained from rotting branches and tree falls and from bamboo stalks and stems. These specializations for life in the understory distinguish Goeldi's monkeys from sympatric tamarins (Saguinus labiatus and Saguinus fusciollis) which spend more time traveling, foraging and resting at higher levels of the canopy.