Oropendola nest predation and rodent consumption by the black-capped capuchin ( Sapajus apella) in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru

Abstract

Capuchins (Cebus and Sapajus spp.) are generalist primates, occurring in most Neotropical forest types where they forage opportunistically (Sabbatini et al., 2008; Lynch Alfaro et al., 2012; Boubli et al., 2020). They exploit a diverse variety of food sources, such as fruit, seeds, arthropods and a wide array of vertebrate prey (Rose, 1997; Albuquerque et al., 2014; Watts, 2020). Their foraging strategy is highly resourceful and adaptive, and they are often considered important predators of nests (Canale and Bernardo, 2016; Watts, 2020), including those of caiman (Torralvo et al., 2017), coatis (Rose, 1997; Ferrari, 2009) and especially of birds (Watts, 2020). In this work, we report observations of a foraging event by the black-capped capuchin, Sapajus apella (Linnaeus, 1758), a widely distributed platyrrhine species, common across much of the Amazon basin (Boubli et al., 2020). This report involves the first record of nest predation of the russet-backed oropendola, Psarocolius angustifrons (von Spix, 1824), by a primate, as well as the predation of arboreal rice rats, Oecomys sp. (Thomas, 1906).