Habitat use,foraging behavior,and activity patterns in reproducing western tarsiers,Tarsius bancanus,in captivity: A managment synthesis

As the only obligatorily predatory primates, tarsiers are notoriously difficult to keep successfully in captivity. Here we report empirical and experimental results from a 5-year study of behavior and life history in captive Tarsius bancanus. Four reproducing adult tarsiers used space nonrandomly, preferring small-diameter vertical or near-vertical locomotor substrates at midlevel enclosure heights (1.2–2.1 m) for sleeping, scanning, and prey capture. The tarsiers were completely nocturnal, and spent 78% of the scotophase scanning, 13% sleeping, and 9% in prey capture and other activities. Only live crickets were eaten; prey capture rates were highest in the first hour after waking, but overall activity rates were highest later in the scotophase. Adult males and nonpregnant or lactating females ingested approximately 44.7–49.7 kJ/day. Growing and lactating individuals ingested approximately 84.4–94.1 KJ/day. An energetically conservative, sit-and-wait predatory strategy was employed, in which 88% of capture attempts were successful. Most successful prey captures involved reaching for, or leaping from, 90° or 60° supports in a horizontal or downward direction onto prey less than 0.6 m away. Virtually all prey captures were in arboreal locations, despite much higher densities of crickets on enclosure floors. Prey capture rates during the first hour of the nocturnal activity period were positively correlated with arboreal cricket densities. At constant arboreal cricket densities, capture rates were negatively correlated with ambient light intensity, with optimum levels for prey capture ranging from 0.1 to 2.0 Lux. In terms of social behavior, these T. bancanus were nongregarious. Females enforced interindividual spacing by chasing and displacing males. Chase/displacement rates increased significantly during late pregnancy and lactation, apparently in an attempt to keep males from harassing infants. There was no direct male parental care. Infants were precocial at birth, and grew at a rate of 0.35–0.5 g/day, until nutritional weaning at approximately 60 days of age. The implications of specialized predatory morphology and behavior for management are discussed. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.