Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

6.3.8 ‘Baboon’, red howler monkey.
All nine interviewees included fruits in their lists of foods, eight also included young
leaves, two included flowers and a single interviewee said that spiders were eaten.
Three considered leaves to be the most important foods, while three others
mentioned particular species of fruit, a different species in each case. Five of the nine
identified a seasonal food shortage, taking place in the dry season according to three,
expressed by the other two as the time when fruit is scarce. All five agreed that
leaves formed the diet at this time of year, and three who specified all agreed that
the leaves of koron (Catostemma fragrans) were of particular importance. Five of
eight interviewees to consider the fate of seeds said they are dispersed
endozoochorously, while three others said that seeds are not eaten.
Suggestions as to group size were quite consistent, a mode of 4-6 being evident
within a range of 2 to 12. Four interviewees gave accounts of group composition
based upon a distinction between smaller and larger individuals. The latter were
considered by two interviewees to be large males: one of these said two of these
were present in each group, the other that there may be either one or two. A further
interviewee said that a group of six would include one adult pair and four of the
smaller individuals, and the fourth indicated that the small kind, named sooman sik
in Wapishana, moved in the same group as the larger one. Five interviewees said that
definite home ranges are occupied, of a size of one and a half miles in one case, 'two
hills' in another, while four considered them to be errant. One suggested that the
territory was defended against other groups, while two others described how groups
sing at eachother and fight on meeting.
Seven interviewees who considered reproductive behaviour all agreed that a
single young is born. Three of these said there was no breeding season, two said
young were born in the rainy season and another that young were born twice yearly.
Only one mentioned that the mother carries the young on her back and feeds it.
On daily activity patterns, two interviewees described a conventional diurnal
pattern, one said they travel day or night, while two others pointed out that they
sleep in the middle of the day and are active early morning and late afternoon, and
sometimes on moonlit nights. All nine interviewees agreed that tree tops are used to
rest, and six further specified that tree tops overgrown with vines and other
epiphytes are used. Two interviewees mentioned that water may be obtained from
tree holes, or in their absence howler monkeys may descend to the ground to drink.
Three interviewees mentioned the danger of falling, but gave a different reason in