Geographic variation in behaviour of individuals within a species is well known (Foster & Endler 1999), both across ranges (Iriarte et al. 1990) and locally (Hertz & Huey 1981). For predators, variation in prey use within a given site is often seasonal (Brillhart & Kaufman 1995), and related to changes in relative abundance and/or vulnerability of various prey (Kunkel et al. 2004). Behavioural diversity also occurs because prey behaviours vary and predators change foraging tactics, even on a daily basis (Ropert-Coudert et al. 2002).

Terrestrial ungulates use different strategies to cope with widespread annual flooding of the Amazon basin. Red brocket deer (Mazama americana) and collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) retreat to floodplain islands and shift from a frugivorous to a woody browse diet. However, both white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) diets are unaffected by inundations; in the case of white-lipped peccary because they migrate into and out of flooded areas and in the case of lowland tapir because of their semi-aquatic nature. These-strategies of white-lipped peccary and lowland tapir enable them to exploit the greater fruit production of flooded forests more frequently than brocket deer and collared peccary.

Infestation rates by palm bruchid beetles (Bruchidae: Pachymerini) on Attalea palm seeds are so high that most endocarps remaining near parent trees contain larvae rather than endosperm a few months after the peak fruiting season. Vertebrates feeding on palm endocarp contents may therefore be feeding on animal rather than plant matter, and the timing of use of endocarps may be influenced by the presence of larvae rather than by background fruit availability. On Maracá Island Ecological Reserve, Roraima State, Brazil, white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari), agoutis (Dasyprocta leporina) and squirrels (Sciurus igniventris) all fed on bruchid beetle larvae from Attalea maripa palm endocarps. Squirrels fed on both larvae and endosperm year-round in all habitat types; agoutis fed on both larvae and seeds only at times and at sites where alternate foods were not available; and white-lipped peccaries fed almost exclusively on bruchid larvae in high-palm-density habitats. Differences in timing and location of endocarp use by these species may provide an index of mammal community dynamics in neotropical forests.