Comportamento locomotor de uma população de muriquis-do-norte (Brachyteles hypoxanthus)

• Autor(a) principal: Ferraz, Daniel da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/2276
• topic: Locomoção; Muriqui; Brachyteles; Mata Atlântica; Locomotion; Muriqui; Brachyteles; Atlantic; CNPQ::CIENCIAS BIOLOGICAS::ZOOLOGIA

The northern muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) is the largest endemic neotropical primate from Atlantic Forest. Classified as semi-brachiator, has morphological adaptations to suspensory locomotion as prehensile tail, long arms and hands as hooks. Little is known about the locomotor behavior of the genus Brachyteles, thus our objective is present the main forms of locomotion used by northern muriquis, analyze possible intraspecific differences according to sex-age classes, and evaluate whether characteristics of the environment have influence on locomotion of northern muriquis. We recorded behavioral data from three groups of muriquis between August 2007 and July 2008 in the RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Based on 2.130 focal samples, which were recorded 3.338 events of locomotion, we observed that the locomotor modes most frequent were bridge, climbing and suspensory locomotion. The locomotor behavior was similar between groups and between males and females. Significant differences (p <0.05) between age classes, females with or without offspring and activities (feeding and locomotion) were observed. The tail plays an important role in locomotion of the northern muriqui, especially in bridges and suspensory locomotion, allowing them to use thinner branches with greater security and access a larger amount of resource. The locomotor activity was more frequent in hillside areas, high forest with abundant lianas, narrow inverted cone trees, terminal zone, and multiple supports smaller than 10 cm. All these features of the environment have great influence on the locomotor behavior of muriquis. Our results suggest that the locomotor repertoire displayed by B. hypoxanthus is similar in some respects to others atelids as Ateles (more suspension) and Lagothrix (more quadrupedal). The ability to use of some locomotor modes such as bridge, sway and leap, associated with body size, shows the great proficiency of muriquis to move in disturbed forests.