Hunting Affects the Navigational Strategies of Yellow-Breasted Capuchins (Sapajus xanthosternos)

Abstract

Human hunting is known to greatly affect the behaviors of wildlife. Hunting drives animals to change their survival strategies in ways that increase risks of disease and natural predation and sacrifice more effective feeding strategies. Thus, human hunting is a significant component (of the landscape of fear, a concept which describes the changes in an animal's space use and spatial distribution of behaviors as responses to indicators of real or perceived predation risk across their habitat. There is a lack of evidence for a connection between navigational strategies and the landscape of fear. We studied the effects of real and perceived predation risk on the use of habitual routes by a population of yellow-breasted capuchins under hunting pressure (Sapajus xanthosternos) at _Una Biological Reserve in Bahia, Brazil. We found that the capuchins used more habitual routes in close proximity to events of hunting. We also found that the capuchins used more habitual routes closer to observed events of risk-perception behaviors. However, events of terrestrial and aerial predation from natural predators did not have a significant effect on the use of habitual routes. Our findings indicate that the navigational strategies of yellow-breasted capuchins are affected by their landscape of fear, especially as it pertains to human hunting.