Lianas as a food resource for brown howlers (Alouatta guariba) and southern muriquis (Brachyteles arachnoides) in a forest fragment

Abstract

Lianas, woody vines, are abundant and diverse in tropical forests, but their relative contribution as a source of food for herbivores has been neglected. I compared feeding rates on lianas and trees of two sympatric primates, A. guariba and B. arachnoides, in Southeastern Brazil. Availability of liana foods was gathered in parallel with primate behavioral data collection. Liana represented 33.9% and 27.3% of food sources for A. guariba and B. arachnoides, respectively. Foods coming from trees, rather than from lianas, were significantly more consumed by B. arachnoides. However, both species took advantage of the continuously renewable and ephemeral food resources provided by liana. Availability of liana flowers correlated positively with A. guariba feeding proportions. The nutritional supply provided by lianas is apparently beneficial, or at least unharmful, but experiments comparing primate choices in forests with different liana abundances will help to shed light on their possible negative effect on communities