DIET OVERLAP AND POLYSPECIFIC ASSOCIATIONS OF RED COLOBUS AND DIANA MONKEYS IN THE TAI NATIONAL-PARK, IVORY-COAST

One possible explanation for the occurrence of the frequent associatio ns between red colobus monkeys and Diana monkeys we observed in Tai Na tional Park, Ivory Coast, is that the two species meet by chance al co mmonly used food patches. An analysis of the overlap of diets showed, however, that foraging in the same trees could only explain a fraction of the total time in association. Therefore two functional explanatio ns are considered: improvement of foraging efficiency and reduction of mortality due to predation. We did not find any evidence for an impro ved access to food sources. We conclude that, by default, the predatio n hypothesis provides the most plausible explanation.