Aportes al conocimiento de Aotus lemurinus (Geoffroy 1843) como dispersor de semillas, en un bosque de Cundinamarca.

Abstract

Arboreal and frugivorous mammals, such as primates, can disperse seeds in areas of plant species regeneration. The objective of this work is to establish whether the Andean night monkey A. lemurinus disperses plant species by microscopic inspection of its excreta. In the case of non-habituated populations, a habituated group of 4 individuals of A. lemurinus was followed at night, paying special attention to feeding events (AFR) and defecation events (SDE), which are hypothesized to be closely related to seed dispersal. A sampling effort of 432 hours of monitoring was achieved and 67 observer samplings were completed where activity pattern and diet were observed 69 sightings and 203 focal records, during the dry season and rainy season of 2020. The seed morphotypes that were most prevalent in the excreta analyzed belong to the genera Cecropia and Miconia. These are indeed the fruits most consumed by individuals of A. lemurinus in this Andean forest. The results contribute to the knowledge of the possible initiatives of regeneration of tropical forests that could be carried out in the management of the species.