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Int J Primatol (2011) 32:329334
DOI 10.1007/s10764-010-9468-5
Received: 20 November 2009 /Accepted: 27 April 2010 /Published online: 27 November 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract Domestic cats are known to kill small mammals and birds, and represent a predatory threat to all small wildlife. We investigated whether a high cat density affects the choice of sleeping sites of urban marmosets (Callithrix penicillata). One group of marmosets and 115 domestic cats live in an 18-ha area in the Municipal
Park of Belo Horizonte City, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We observed the selection of 105 consecutive sleeping sites by the marmosets between January and April, 2009. We observed predation of 3 juvenile marmosets by domestic cats and a mean of 3.24 attempted predation events per day. The park contains 3777 trees of 275 species, but the marmosets chose only 6 different species 3 palms, 2 eucalyptuses, and 1 fig and a total of 12 different sleeping trees. Sleeping sites appeared to be chosen to minimize the risk of cat predation. Marmosets slept only in tall trees (meanSD=22.49 m5.4) with high first branches (mean above-ground level=10.36 m4.7) and smooth or thorny bark. Marmosets reached sleeping trees from adjacent trees, and neither marmosets nor cats climbed into sleeping trees from the ground. These results suggest that domestic cat predation pressure influences the physical characteristics of marmoset sleeping site selection, e.g., height, to reduce predation rate.
Keywords Callithrix . Domestic cats . Predation . Sleeping sites . Tree characteristics
Introduction
Primates select sleeping sites based on various factors, including safety from predators, comfort and hygiene, social opportunities (Anderson 1998), thermoregulation, (Anderson and McGrew 1984), absence of parasites (Kappeler 1998), territoriality and resource availability (Anderson and McGrew 1984), proximity to
M. H. L. Duarte : R. J. Young (*)
Conservation, Ecology and Animal Behaviour Group, Mestrado em Zoologia, Pontifcia Universidade Catlica de Minas Gerais, Corao Eucarstico, 30535-610 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil e-mail: robyoung@pucminas.br
Sleeping Site Selection by Urban Marmosets (Callithrix penicillata) Under Conditionsof Exceptionally High Predator Density
Marina H. L. Duarte & Robert J. Young
330 M.H.L. Duarte, R.J. Young
water and food (Chapman 1989), or shelter from rain (Heymann 1995). Many primate species spend 50% of their time in sleeping sites (Heymann 1995), and sleeping site selection in...