Bald-faced Saki (Pithecia irrorator)

MORPHOLOGY:
The tail of the bald-faced saki is not prehensile. The facial hair color is sexually dimorphic (Kinzey, 1997). The bald-faced saki has robust incisors and canines that it uses to break through the tough pericarp of fruit (Fleagle, 1988). This species is sexually dimorphic in terms of pelage color (Kinzey, 1997).

RANGE:
The bald-faced saki is found in the high forests of Bolivia (Izawa and Bejarano, 1981; Izawa and Yoneda, 1981).

ECOLOGY:
The bald-faced saki is primarily frugivorous, but seeds and nuts constitute a large part of diet. This species also consumes leaves and insects, especially ants. The fruits that this species consumes have hard pericarps (Kinzey, 1992). This is a diurnal species.

LOCOMOTION:
The bald-faced saki moves through the forest both quadrupedally and by leaping (Fleagle, 1988). When the bald-faced saki takes off from a tree branch, most likely it does this from a vertical clinging position (Walker, 1993).

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR:
The bald-faced saki has a multimale-multifemale social system. Fleagle and Meldrum (1988) have suggested that this species lives in small groups that come together to form larger congregations. These groups of bald-faced sakis are described as closed social units (Soini, 1986). Males do groom their young (Kinzey, 1997).

VOCAL COMMUNICATION:
Duetting between the male and female is important in the maintaining of territorial boundaries and maintaining the social bond between pairs which are monogamous.

OLFACTORY COMMUNICATION:

VISUAL COMMUNICATION:

TACTILE COMMUNICATION:

REPRODUCTION:
The bald-faced saki gives birth to single offspring.

REFERENCES:
Burton, Frances. 1995. The Multimedia Guide to the Non-human Primates. Prentice-Hall Canada Inc.

Fleagle, John G. 1988. Primate Adaptation and Evolution. Academic Press.

Fleagle, J.G. and Meldrum, D.J. 1988. Locomotor Behavior and Skeletal Morphology of Two Sympatric Pithecine Monkeys, Pithecia pithecia and Chiropotes satanas. American Journal of Primatology Vol. 16(3), 227-249.

Izawa, K. and Bejarano, G. 1981. Distribution Ranges and Patterns of Nonhuman Primates in Western Pando, Bolivia. Kyoto University Overseas Research Reports of New World Monkeys Vol. 2, 1-11.

Izawa, K. and Yoneda, M. 1981. Habitat Utilization of Nonhuman Primates in a Forest of the Western Pando, Bolivia. Kyoto University Overseas Research Reports of New World Monkeys Vol. 2, 13-22.

Kinzey, W.G. 1992. Dietary and Dental Adaptations in the Pitheciinae. American Journal of Physical Anthropology Vol. 88 (2), 499-514.

Kinzey, W.G. 1997. Pithecia. in New World Primates: Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. ed. Warren G. Kinzey, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.

Soini, P. 1986. A Synecological Study of a Primate Community in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru. Primate Conservation Vol. 7, 63-71.

Walker, S.E. 1993. Positional Adaptations and Ecology of the Pitheciini. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York.

Last Updated: October 12, 2003.
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