Publication Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Porter, Leila M.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Anthropology

Abstract

Across the primate order, the juvenile stage is an important period of development that transitions individuals from infancy to adulthood. During the juvenile stage, individuals are weaned but lack experience feeding and foraging on solid foods. As a result, juveniles must learn foraging and feeding skills during this vital period of growth and development. The purpose of this study is to assess how juvenile saddleback tamarins (Leontocebus weddelli) gain foraging and food manipulation skills. During this study, I observed feeding behaviors in a group containing two juveniles and four adults, located at the Estación Biológica Tahuamanu in the Department of Pando, Bolivia, focusing on how social foraging behaviors are used for social learning. I also examined if and how juveniles gained food independence. I divided social foraging into two distinct types, direct food provisioning, whereby food is directly transferred from an adult to a juvenile, and indirect provisioning, whereby a juvenile must forage independently, but coforages with an adult, or is guided by an adult to a novel foraging site. During the study, indirect forms of food provisioning (n=112) were more common than direct food provisioning (n=44). Direct food provisioning included begging by juveniles, but only four begging attempts were successful. Indirect foraging activities centered on insects, indicating that juveniles require more guidance to learn how to find and catch insects than other food items. There was no significant change in the frequency of specific social foraging activities (e.g., approach and begging attempts, adult initiated forage) from week to week. However, the overall frequency of social foraging behaviors decreased significantly from the first study month to the second, indicating the juveniles relied less on social foraging to obtain food as they matured. By focusing on social foraging behaviors and patterns, this study provides important information as to how tamarins survive this often-overlooked period of development. Furthermore, it demonstrates the importance of studying juvenile skill acquisition and behavioral adaptability across taxa to understand what adaptations primates have evolved to survive this period of their life cycle.

Extent

78 pages

Language

en

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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