DIET’S EFFECT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF FREE-LIVING GROUPS OF CALLITHRIX JACCHUS IN THE PARQUE ESTADUAL DOIS IRMÃOS, PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL

Callithrix jacchus is a neotropical, arboreal and diurnal primate of the family Callitrichidae, that has its original distribution in the Northeast of Brazil, even in areas that suffer anthropic influence. The anthropic environment may present a high availability of food that can be accessed by wild animals. The main objective of this work was to investigate the availability of human food and its influence on the displacement and rest patterns of groups in free-living C. jacchus marmosets, that inhabit areas of the Parque Estadual Dois Irmãos, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Two Groups were monitored between August 2014 and July 2015 after managed for morphometric data collection and individual marking. Behavioral data were collected using the Instantaneous Scanning (scan) and All Occurrences methods. The displacement, stationary and feeding categories were the most frequent ones in groups Z and Q, but with different percentages. The detailed analysis of the consumed food items showed that these groups consume more foods provided (by man) than natural ones (group Z = 56% and group Q = 55.5%). In terms of natural items, the highest consumptions were gums (13.5%) for group Z, and the Artocarpus heterophyllus fruit (18.2%) for group Q, whose individuals were not observed consuming gum. The Chi-square test reached significance in all analyses, confirming our hypothesis that groups of marmosets with access to more caloric foods tend to move less and rest more, investing more time in social activities such as playing.