Phenotypic plasticity of tufted capuchin monkeys (genus Sapajus): effect of different ontogenetic trajectories or of context-dependent activation?

Abstract

In the literature on animal behavior, there is growing interest in the idea of phenotypic plasticity as a crucial factor in evolution. Among non-human primates, the Neotropical genus Sapajus is ideal to investigate hypotheses about behavioral plasticity as adaptation to diverse environmental contexts. Thus, this project aims at investigating the processes underlying the already observed behavioral variability among populations of Sapajus. We will investigate whether this plasticity results from reversible flexibility to environmental changes (activational plasticity) or from different ontogenetic trajectories in the initial development of the different populations (developmental plasticity), by means of the relationship between variance intra and interpopulations and over different developmental phases. We will also investigate the null hypothesis that the variability results from genetic variation through a genomic analysis and through mixed models analyses of phenotypic and genetic covariation. In order to do this, we will compare, by means of weekly video recording of an entire day, individuals of 0 to 36 months of age, from four wild populations of sister species (S. nigritus, S. libidinosus, S. xanthosternos and S. flavius), as well as ecological variables and characteristics of social systems, and genotype, behavior, and hormonal profile of all individuals of the studied groups. This is a multicentric project, bringing together Brazilian researchers from USP (IP and IB), UNESP Botucatu, UFABC and UFRN, North-American from UCLA, UGA, Athens, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Europeans, form ISTC-Rome, Italy and from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, and one researcher form the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico. (AU)