Sapajus libidinosus
Creators: name: Russell A. Mittermeier
name: Anthony B. Rylands
name: Don E. Wilson
Publisher: name: Lynx Edicions
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Mammalia
Primates
Cebidae
Sapajus
Sapajus libidinosus

description: 11.
Bearded Capuchin
Sapajus libidinosus
French: Sapajou barbu / German: Rickenstreifen-Kapuzineraffe / Spanish: Capuchino barbudo
Other common names: Black-striped Capuchin
Taxonomy. Cebus libidinosus Spix, 1823,
Brazil, Rio Carinhanha, north of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Replaced by S. apella to the west, by S. flavius to the east, and by S. xanthosternos to the south of the Rio Sao Francisco; S. nigritus occurs just south of the Rio Grande and hybridization between it and S. libidinosus is evident in the western part of Minas Gerais State (in the area known as the Triangulo Mineiro). Monotypic.
Distribution. C & NE Brazil, W and N of the Rio Sao Francisco to Maranhao State and the W of Piaui State and E to C Rio Grande do Norte (W ofJucurutu), NW Paraiba, W Pernambuco, and W Alagoas states, to the W it extends to the Rio Araguaia and the S limit is the N bank of Rio Grande in Minas Gerais State.
Descriptive notes. Head-body 34—44 cm,tail 38-49 cm; weight 1-3—4-8 kg. The Bearded Capuchin is small without sexual dimorphism. It differs from all other species of Sapajus by the rusty red hair on the back of the neck, the dark brown preauricular stripe running down the side of the face in front of the ears, sometimes extending to the beard, and the orangey-yellow throat and dorsal parts of the body, flanks, outer parts of arms, and proximal two-thirds of the tail. Forearms are dark, and the lower back and outer surface of thighs are grayish brown, with some reddish hairs. The crown is black, with rounded, sometimes bushy, black tufts.
Habitat. Two distinct vegetation types in Brazil: dry xerophytic caatinga forest and scrub in the north-east and the cerrado (bush savanna) of central Brazil. In the caatinga, annual rainfall is often below 200 m and rarely above 1000 mm. Bearded capuchins are found in the arboreal caatinga, a dense,tall, closed-canopy, deciduous forest, once widespread but now largely destroyed and degraded. They are also found in shrubby caatinga, low xerophytic, spiny scrub of profusely branched bushy vegetation mixed with prickly succulent cacti, and spiny, rigid-leaved bromeliads, reaching 8-10 m in height. Elevations are 300-600 m above sea level. Bearded Capuchins are generally associated with rocky escarpments and hillsides in mountainous regions. Legumes (Fabaceae) and Euphorbiaceae dominate the flora. The cerrado is a mosaic of savanna and savanna forest (“cerradao”) of twisted and gnarled low trees, often with thick, waxy, xeromorphic leaves, 5-15 m tall, forming a discontinuous canopy, and dry, dense semi-deciduous forest patches. The so-called “campo cerrado” is more open grassland with frequent but isolated trees. Elevations are generally above 500 m, and annual rainfall is 1500-2000 mm. Bearded Capuchins also occupy gallery forest and tall humid forest (“brejos”) in the caatinga, with a mixture of Amazonian and Atlantic Forest plant species benefitting from orogenic rainfall along the plateaus and windward slopes of mountain ranges.
Food and Feeding. Bearded Capuchins eat mainly fruits and small animal prey, particularly insects. In the caatinga of Fazenda Boa Vista in Piaui State, the diet comprised c.47% fruits, ¢.31% invertebrate prey, c.4% flowers, 4% leaves, and c.12% miscellaneous items. Palm fruits are available throughout the year and provide a vital and abundant food source during the dry season. Palms include Astrocaryum campestre, Attalea barreirensis, a second species of Attalea and a species of Orbignya. In Rio Grande do Norte, they also eat fruits of Syagrus. Palms are acaulous (a much shortened trunk) and their bunches offruits are at ground level. Bearded Capuchins pull and twist outfruits and eat mesocarp from all except Astrocaryum. They use hard stones and a sandstone anvil to break open fruits to eat the endocarp. Stones are used to dig out tubers of Manihot (Euphorpbiacaeae) and Thiloa (Combretaceae) and break them into pieces. They are also used to open hollow branchesto get at ant nests and vertebrate prey such as lizards and to get at the soft inner pith of cactuses (Pulosocereus prauhyensis). Twigs are used to probe tree holes and rock crevices for insects, honey, or water. It would appear that tool use, principally using rocks to break open palm fruits, is widespread in the caatinga region where Bearded Capuchins occur. They raid maize and sugar cane plantations.
Breeding. Aspects of reproduction and breeding of Bearded Capuchins are undoubtedly similar to, or the same as, other species of Sapajus, but studies are lacking. As in other Sapajus capuchins, females show proceptive sexual solicitation of the group’s dominant male, who is not aggressive toward females and does not coerce them into mating. Interbirth intervals recorded for four females at the Fazenda Boa Vista averaged 22 months.
Activity patterns. The activity budget of a group of Bearded Capuchins at Fazenda Boa Vista was foraging (searching for, handling, and eating food) ¢.49%, traveling ¢.37%, resting ¢.10%, and other behaviors such as grooming, play, and soliciting the sexual attentions of dominant males c¢.4%. More time is spent foraging in the dry season when palm fruits, which take some time to process, assume a larger proportion of the diet. The caatinga group of Bearded Capuchins at the Fazenda Boa Vista spends much of its time on the ground, or very near to it, in vegetation that is very open compared with tall forest, and they are correspondingly more skittish. In a direct comparison with Black-horned Capuchins (S. nigritus) living in tall forest, rate of alarm calling was higher: 0-2 alarms/hour for Bearded Capuchins compared to 0-1 alarms/hour for Black-horned Capuchins.
Movements, Home range and Social organization. Group sizes of Bearded Capuchins in the caatinga of Serra da Capivara National Park in Piaui State average nine individuals with a maximum of 16. One group of ten had two males, five females, and three juveniles. Two groups in Fazenda Boa Vista had eight individuals and the other had 19 individuals, with home ranges of ¢.300 ha. A very large group of 53 individuals was found in the arboreal caatinga in the western part of Rio Grande do Norte. Groups of Bearded Capuchins are cohesive and do notsplit into subgroups. Groups of Black-horned Capuchins spread out while foraging, but Bearded Capuchins in these caatinga groups feed from concentrated small clumps of palm fruits, and rates of foodrelated aggression are correspondingly higher. Unlike Black-horned Capuchins, female Bearded Capuchins establish a clear dominance hierarchy.
Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List (as Cebus libidinosus). As is true for all species of capuchins, the Bearded Capuchin is hunted wherever it occurs. It has undoubtedly declined in numbers in a diminishing and increasingly fragmented range over the last 40 years, with the enormous expansion of the agricultural frontier in central Brazil. It is, however, widespread and adaptable.
Bibliography. Ferreira, Emidio & Jerusalinsky (2010), Ferreira, Jerusalinsky et al. (2009), Fragaszy, Fedigan & Visalberghi (2004), Fragaszy, Izar et al. (2004), Fragaszy, Visalberghi et al. (2004), Freese & Oppenheimer (1981), Hill (1960), Izar, Stone etal. (2008), |zar, Verderane et al. (2012), Moura (2007), Moura & Lee (2004), Moura & McConkey (2007), Freese & Oppenheimer (1981), Rylands et al. (2005), Silva (2001), Torres (1988), Visalberghi et al. (2007).
description: Published as part of Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson, 2013, Cebidae, pp. 348-413 in Handbook of the Mammals of the World – Volume 3 Primates, Barcelona :Lynx Edicions on pages 400-401, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6628559