Using Camera Traps to Determine Group Demography in a Paraguayan Population of Sapajus cay

Rebecca Louise Smith, Emily Briggs

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The understudied Hooded Capuchin (Sapajus cay) is the only representative of its genus in Paraguay. The species is distributed throughout the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest, a biome that historically covered most of eastern Paraguay but has been reduced to small, isolated fragments by agricultural encroachment. Understanding group composition and demographics is important for monitoring the viability of populations. In this study, video camera traps were used to monitor a single group of Hooded Capuchins during their visits to a provisioning platform in a small Atlantic Forest fragment in Reserva Natural
Laguna Blanca, Departamento San Pedro, Paraguay. Video analysis enabled identification and assignation of age classes to all 18 individuals of the group. Sex determination was possible for 8 adults, 2 subadults, and 2 juveniles. This study provides the first information of group demographics and composition of wild Hooded Capuchins in Paraguay.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-88
Number of pages8
JournalNeotropical Primates
Volume22
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2015

Bibliographical note

We thank all the people that helped with this project, in particular Jorge Damian Ayala Santacruz for constructing the platform and his continued support throughout. Special thanks must be extended to Sean Coyne, Roxanne Hawkins, Anna O’Riordan, Susan Smith, Stefan Harrison, Karina Atkinson and Paul Smith for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks to Jessica Lynch Alfaro for her extremely helpful comments on this paper. Thank you to the Secretaria del Ambiente and Malvina Duarte for their continued and unwavering support of Fundación Para La Tierra’s projects. Our sincere appreciation goes to all the Fundación para la Tierra volunteers and interns who assisted with re-baiting the feeding platform and to everyone who supported our YouCaring Fundraising Campaign that facilitated the purchase of the two camera traps.

Keywords

  • Atlantic forest
  • group composition
  • hooded capuchin
  • paraguay
  • video camera trapping

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