masterThesis
Fatores que influenciam a neofobia alimentar em fêmeas e filhotes de sagüis (Callithrix jacchus)
Fecha
2010-10-08Registro en:
ENGELMANN, Cristiana. Fatores que influenciam a neofobia alimentar em fêmeas e filhotes de sagüis (Callithrix jacchus). 2010. 55 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Estudos de Comportamento; Psicologia Fisiológica) - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, 2010.
Autor
Engelmann, Cristiana
Resumen
Considering the constant environmental changes, the ability to introduce new
food items in the diet is crucial to omnivore animal survival. For optimal nourishment
and lessening of intoxication risks, the animals must detect signs that indicate which
items are adequate for their intake. We investigate some factors that interfere in the
responses to non familiar food, modulating their neophobic behavior, of marmosets
Callithrix jacchus, an omnivore and generalist primate, native to Northeast Brazil,
known for being cautious in ingesting not known food. We analyzed the influence of
food taste (sweet or salty), pregnancy and sex in feeding behavior and neophobic
responses in these animals. 10 captive females were first selected, 5 of them being then
pregnant. The females, pregnant or not, ate more when presented to the sweet items
than to the salty ones. Pregnant females, however, themselves were less neophobic to
both tastes, being also strongly neophilic to the sweets. We verified then the influence
of nourishment during pregnancy on young males and females post natal feeding
behavior. We observed 10 young divided in two groups, one whose mother ate that
food item during pregnancy and one whose mother had no contact to it. In the first
group that food was more easily accepted by the young, suggesting that neofobia and
feeding behavior had a pre natal influence. Female young also ingested more food and
were less neophobic than males, a difference already observed in behavior of adults of
these specie. These results suggest that the low neophobic behavior to sweet food
showed by females can be adaptive, and might have bestowed more fitness to those
who presented it