Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Feeding Ecology and Life History Strategies of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys

像人类一样，卷尾猴有很长的幼年期。为了确定这一漫长的幼年发育期是否是需要学习如何获取食物的结果，将在哥斯达黎加帕夸雷自然保护区收集三组野生卷尾猴的食物获取率的详细数据。将对不同年龄段的观察到的比率进行分析，以确定年龄较大、接近成人大小的青少年是否仍然需要时间来学习如何以成人比率获取食物。卷尾猴还以依赖难以获得的食物和大脑比例较大而闻名。为了帮助理解缺乏经验的少年卷尾猴是如何获得足够的食物来生长和发育他们的大大脑的，这项研究将包括成年卷尾猴和独立行动的少年从食物中获得的营养的测量。这一衡量标准将包括对食品的营养分析以及采购率。智力优势：为这项研究收集的数据将被用来检验生态复杂性模型，该模型认为，长时间青少年时期的适应是对难以获得的食物的依赖的结果。此外，这项研究将提供关于大脑大、缺乏经验的青少年如何满足他们的新陈代谢需求的数据。这项研究的更广泛影响包括：(1)培训一名年轻的女科学家和她的哥斯达黎加实地助理；(2)在新墨西哥大学和哥斯达黎加帕库雷自然保护区之间建立伙伴关系--这是对重要热带物种进行生态研究的宝贵地点；(3)支持濒危野生动物信托基金；以及(4)对参观保护区的学生进行教育。这项研究将产生一篇博士论文，有关结果的论文将提交给进化人类学和灵长类动物学领域的知名期刊。

Like humans, capuchin monkeys have a long juvenile period. To determine if this long period of juvenile development is a result of needing to learn how to acquire food, detailed data on food acquisition rates will be collected on three groups of wild capuchin monkeys at the Pacuare Nature Reserve in Costa Rica. Observed rates across age groups will be analyzed to determine whether older, nearly adult-sized juveniles still require time to learn how to obtain food at adult rates. Capuchin monkeys are also known for their reliance on difficult-to-obtain food items and for having proportionally large brains. To help understand how inexperienced juvenile capuchins acquire enough food for growth and the development of their large brains, this study will include measures of the nutrients young juveniles obtain from food that adults have dropped versus independent action. This measurement will incorporate nutritional analysis of foods along with acquisition rates. Intellectual merit: The data collected for this study will be used to test the ecological complexity model which holds that the adaptation of a long juvenile period is the result of reliance on difficult-to-acquire foods. In addition, this study will provide data on how large-brained, inexperienced juveniles meet their metabolic needs. Broader impacts of this study include (1) the training of a young female scientist and her Costa Rican field assistant, (2) creation of a partnership between the University of New Mexico and the Pacuare Nature Reserve in Costa Rica - a valuable site for conducting ecological research on important tropical species, (3) support for The Endangered Wildlife Trust, and (4) education of students who visit the reserve. This research will result in a doctoral dissertation and papers on the results will be submitted to prominent journals in the fields of evolutionary anthropology and primatology.