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Piot E, Hippauf L, Charlanne L, Picard B, Badaut J, Gilbert C, Guinet C. From land to ocean: One month for southern elephant seal pups to acquire aquatic skills prior to their first departure to sea. Physiol Behav 2024; 279:114525. [PMID: 38531424 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2024.114525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Revised: 03/18/2024] [Accepted: 03/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/28/2024]
Abstract
Weaned southern elephant seals (SES) quickly transition from terrestrial to aquatic life after a 5- to 6-week post-weaning period. At sea, juveniles and adult elephant seals present extreme, continuous diving behaviour. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of the post-weaning period for weanlings to prepare for the physiological challenges of their future sea life. However, very little is known about how their body condition during this period may influence the development of their behaviour and brain activities. To characterise changes in the behavioural and brain activity of weanlings prior to ocean departure, we implemented a multi-logger approach combining measurements of movements (related to behaviour), pressure (related to diving), and brain electrical activity. As pups age, the amount of time allocated to resting decreases in favour of physical activity. Most resting (9.6 ± 1.2 h/day) takes place during daytime, with periods of slow-wave sleep representing 4.9 ± 0.9 h/day during the first 2 weeks. Furthermore, an increasing proportion of physical activity transitions from land to shore. Additionally, pups in poorer condition (lean group) are more active earlier than those in better condition (corpulent group). Finally, at weaning, clear circadian activity with two peaks at dawn and dusk is observed, and this pattern remains unchanged during the 4 weeks on land. This circadian pattern matches the one observed in adults at sea, with more prey catches at dawn and dusk, raising the question of whether it is endogenous or triggered by the mother during lactation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erwan Piot
- Laboratoire MECADEV, UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, 1 Avenue du Petit Château, 91800 Brunoy, France; CNRS UMR 5536, Université de Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France.
| | - Lea Hippauf
- CNRS UMR 5536, Université de Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France
| | - Laura Charlanne
- Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC, Département d'Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie, 23 rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg, France
| | - Baptiste Picard
- Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CEBC-CNRS), UMR 7372 CNRS/Université de La Rochelle, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France
| | - Jérôme Badaut
- CNRS UMR 5536, Université de Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France
| | - Caroline Gilbert
- Laboratoire MECADEV, UMR 7179 CNRS/MNHN, 1 Avenue du Petit Château, 91800 Brunoy, France; École Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, 7 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94704 Maisons-Alfort cedex, France
| | - Christophe Guinet
- Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CEBC-CNRS), UMR 7372 CNRS/Université de La Rochelle, 79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France
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Wu XM, Zhang J, Chen SW, Sun BH, Xia DP. Behavioral adaptation in an adoptive free-ranging female Tibetan macaque. Primates 2023; 64:469-474. [PMID: 37395860 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-023-01076-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/04/2023]
Abstract
Adoption is an important form of allomaternal care in nonhuman primates, with implications for reproductive output and infant survival. Here, we report a kidnapping that became an adoption of a 3-week-old infant by a mother with her own infant in Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana). The adoptive mother nursed her "new" infant (allonursing), the first observation of this behavior in the species. The case provided a natural experiment for comparing how a female copes with a heavier burden of care for both her biological infant and another female's infant, compared to mothers caring for only one infant. Our results showed that the adoptive female spent more time foraging and resting, and less time in group social activity compared to females with a single infant. The adoptive female showed more instances of social bridging. Although the duration of post-bridging grooming received from group members decreased, the frequency of such grooming increased. We discuss this adoption with reference to possible factors involved in the evolution of adoption and allonursing behavior in Tibetan macaques.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xue-Mei Wu
- School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
- International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
- International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Shi-Wang Chen
- School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
- International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Bing-Hua Sun
- International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, Hefei, 230601, China
- School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China
| | - Dong-Po Xia
- School of Life Sciences, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China.
- International Collaborative Research Center for Huangshan Biodiversity and Tibetan Macaque Behavioral Ecology, Hefei, 230601, China.
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Kraus JB, Strier KB. Geographic, climatic, and phylogenetic drivers of variation in colobine activity budgets. Primates 2022. [PMID: 36083406 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-022-01015-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 08/26/2022] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Folivorous primates are typically considered time minimizers because the constraints of their unique digestive systems require them to spend a large portion of their activity budgets resting. However, inter- and intraspecific behavioral variation in their activity budgets may be influenced by local geographic and climatic conditions and evolutionary history. We compiled 48 studies representing ten genera, 31 species, and 50 populations to assess geographic (elevation, latitude), climatic (precipitation, temperature), and phylogenetic correlates of colobine activity budgets. Time spent resting negatively correlated with time spent feeding, moving, and socializing. Except for time spent socializing, activity budgets were independent of phylogeny, with more time spent feeding and less time resting in higher-elevation habitats and at lower temperatures. Among the four most common genera in our sample, only in Rhinopithecus did time spent feeding increase with higher elevations (range, 950-3950 m above mean sea level) and lower temperatures (range, 0.9-25 ℃). Only in Trachypithecus did time spent resting decrease with lower temperatures (range, 19-25 ℃). Our findings suggest that there are no apparent effects of geographic or climatic gradients on colobine activity budgets except for Rhinopithecus and Trachypithecus, whose activities are biased in favor of energy maximization rather than time minimization. Compared with other colobines, the ability of Rhinopithecus to adapt their activity budget at high elevations may make them less vulnerable to climate change, while the greater sensitivity of Trachypithecus to heat may make them more vulnerable to climate change.
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Lim SSL, Mazlan D, Toh CKW. Larder Hoarding Versus Immediate in situ Food Consumption in Two Fiddler Crab Species: Is it an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy? Zool Stud 2022; 61:e72. [PMID: 37007814 PMCID: PMC10064041 DOI: 10.6620/zs.2022.61-72] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2022] [Indexed: 04/04/2023]
Abstract
Larder hoarding behavior in central place foragers has been widely studied in vertebrates, albeit, not as extensively as scatter hoarding. However, scant information is available for the invertebrate taxa, especially aquatic species. We investigated this phenomenon via an in situ food supplementation experiment in a community of two sympatric fiddler crabs, Austruca annulipes (n = 80; 40 males and 40 females) and Gelasimus vocans (n = 60; 30 males and 30 females), in a Singapore mangrove patch with an intermediate resource level. As the semiterrestrial intertidal crabs can only forage after emergence from their burrows during exposure period, the duration of time available for feeding is finite and constitutes an important constraint in the optimization of food intake. The activity budget (in terms of time spent on feeding activities, all above-ground non-feeding activities, and burrow-sequestration) as well as the occurrence (if any) of larder hoarding behavior in these two species after they first emerged were recorded by hourly intervals (three hours of observation) to determine the effect of time left for foraging on larder hoarding. Regardless of species, A. annulipes and G. vocans spent most of the time feeding when the tide was out, despite overall significant behavioral heterogeneity (multivariate analyses using ANOSIM) indicating that both species prioritized hunger satiation over other activities. Our results also showed that although the two sympatric crabs live in the same mangrove area with similar food resource levels, only A. annulipes larder hoarded. The propensity to larder hoard did not differ significantly between the sexes, nor among the three time periods of the feeding duration. Gelasimus vocans, one of the species of crabs known to form feeding droves, did not larder hoard at all. We propose that A. annulipes is a species that can deploy larder hoarding as a foraging strategy when it encounters valuable food resources, and such a strategy is highly advantageous for the species as it generally inhabits sandy habitats that are poor in nutrient levels. Hence, larder hoarding can be considered a mixed evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) adopted by A. annulipes. In contrast, G. vocans that commonly inhabits muddy sediments-with a high level of food resources-did not larder hoard, even when provided with supplemented food, suggesting perhaps that its mixed ESS is droving behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shirley S L Lim
- Ecology Lab, Natural Sciences & Science Education, NIE, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Republic of Singapore. E-mail: ; (Lim); (Danial); (Toh)
| | - Danial Mazlan
- Ecology Lab, Natural Sciences & Science Education, NIE, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Republic of Singapore. E-mail: ; (Lim); (Danial); (Toh)
| | - Clarence K W Toh
- Ecology Lab, Natural Sciences & Science Education, NIE, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616, Republic of Singapore. E-mail: ; (Lim); (Danial); (Toh)
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Clermont J, Woodward-Gagné S, Berteaux D. Digging into the behaviour of an active hunting predator: arctic fox prey caching events revealed by accelerometry. Mov Ecol 2021; 9:58. [PMID: 34838144 PMCID: PMC8626921 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-021-00295-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2021] [Accepted: 11/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Biologging now allows detailed recording of animal movement, thus informing behavioural ecology in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. In particular, combining GPS and accelerometry allows spatially explicit tracking of various behaviours, including predation events in large terrestrial mammalian predators. Specifically, identification of location clusters resulting from prey handling allows efficient location of killing events. For small predators with short prey handling times, however, identifying predation events through technology remains unresolved. We propose that a promising avenue emerges when specific foraging behaviours generate diagnostic acceleration patterns. One such example is the caching behaviour of the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), an active hunting predator strongly relying on food storage when living in proximity to bird colonies. METHODS We equipped 16 Arctic foxes from Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada) with GPS and accelerometers, yielding 23 fox-summers of movement data. Accelerometers recorded tri-axial acceleration at 50 Hz while we obtained a sample of simultaneous video recordings of fox behaviour. Multiple supervised machine learning algorithms were tested to classify accelerometry data into 4 behaviours: motionless, running, walking and digging, the latter being associated with food caching. Finally, we assessed the spatio-temporal concordance of fox digging and greater snow goose (Anser caerulescens antlanticus) nesting, to test the ecological relevance of our behavioural classification in a well-known study system dominated by top-down trophic interactions. RESULTS The random forest model yielded the best behavioural classification, with accuracies for each behaviour over 96%. Overall, arctic foxes spent 49% of the time motionless, 34% running, 9% walking, and 8% digging. The probability of digging increased with goose nest density and this result held during both goose egg incubation and brooding periods. CONCLUSIONS Accelerometry combined with GPS allowed us to track across space and time a critical foraging behaviour from a small active hunting predator, informing on spatio-temporal distribution of predation risk in an Arctic vertebrate community. Our study opens new possibilities for assessing the foraging behaviour of terrestrial predators, a key step to disentangle the subtle mechanisms structuring many predator-prey interactions and trophic networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeanne Clermont
- Canada Research Chair On Northern Biodiversity, Université du Québec À Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada.
- Center for Northern Studies, Quebec, Canada.
- Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science, Montreal, Canada.
| | - Sasha Woodward-Gagné
- Canada Research Chair On Northern Biodiversity, Université du Québec À Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada
| | - Dominique Berteaux
- Canada Research Chair On Northern Biodiversity, Université du Québec À Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada.
- Center for Northern Studies, Quebec, Canada.
- Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science, Montreal, Canada.
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Robbins AM, Grueter CC, Abavandimwe D, Stoinski TS, Robbins MM. Dissecting the two mechanisms of scramble competition among the Virunga mountain gorillas. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021; 75:82. [PMID: 34776593 DOI: 10.1007/s00265-021-03016-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2020] [Revised: 03/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Abstract Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain why scramble competition can increase the travel requirements of individuals within larger groups. Firstly, individuals in larger groups may be more likely to encounter food sites where other group members have already eaten, leading to greater asynchronous “individual” travel to find fresh sites. Secondly, when food sites are aggregated into patches, larger groups may need to visit more patches to obtain the same amount of food per capita, leading to greater synchronous “group” travel between patches. If the first mechanism can be mitigated by increasing group spread, then we expect the second mechanism to be more sensitive to group size. Here, we examine the individual travel and group travel of the Virunga mountain gorillas, along with potential implications for the two mechanisms of scramble competition. Asynchronous individual travel accounted for 67% of the total travel time, and the remainder arose from group travel. Group spread increased significantly for larger groups, but not enough to prevent an increase in individual travel. Contrary to expectations, group travel decreased with size among most groups, and we found only limited evidence of patch depletion that would cause the second mechanism of scramble competition. Collectively, our results illustrate how the influence of group size can differ for individual travel versus group travel, just as it differs among species for overall travel. Studies that distinguish between the two mechanisms of scramble competition may enhance our understanding of ecological constraints upon group size, including potential differences between frugivores and folivores. Significance statement Feeding competition provides insight into how group size can influence the foraging patterns of social animals, but two key mechanisms are not typically compared. Firstly, larger groups may visit more patches to access the same amount of food per capita (group travel). Secondly, their individuals may also need to move past more spots where another member has already eaten (individual travel). Contrary to expectations, we found that group travel decreased with size for most groups of mountain gorillas, which may reflect extra travel by smaller groups to avoid larger groups. Individual travel increased with size in most groups, even though gorillas in larger groups compensated by spreading out over a broader area. The two mechanisms revealed patterns that were not apparent in our previous study of overall travel. Our approach may help to explain potential differences between folivores and frugivores.
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Coleman BT, Setchell JM, Hill RA. Seasonal variation in the behavioural ecology of samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albogularis schwarzi) in a southern latitude montane environment. Primates 2021; 62:1005-1018. [PMID: 34403014 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-021-00939-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 08/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Samango monkeys (Cercopithecus albogularis schwarzi) in the Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa, experience a highly seasonal climate, with relatively cold, dry winters. They must show behavioural flexibility to survive these difficult conditions near the southern limit of the species' distribution and maintain the minimum nutritional intake they require. Through environmental monitoring and behavioural observations of a habituated group of samango monkeys, we explored how they adapted to the highly seasonal climate they experienced in the mountains. Our results indicated that the monkeys varied their foraging behaviours to account for changes in climate and daylight availability. The samangos increased their food intake in colder months, specifically leaves, likely due to an increased need for calories during winter to maintain body temperature. Samango monkeys have anatomical and physiological adaptations for digesting leaves, and these are likely important in explaining their ability to adapt to the broad range of climatic conditions they experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ben T Coleman
- Research Policy Unit, University of Wolverhampton, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 1LY, UK. .,Primate & Predator Project, Lajuma Research Centre, 522, Louis Trichardt (Makhado), 0920, South Africa.
| | - Joanna M Setchell
- Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Russell A Hill
- Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK.,Department of Zoology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa
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Chowdhury S, Brown JL, Swedell L. Costs of seasonality at a southern latitude: Behavioral endocrinology of female baboons in the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. Horm Behav 2021; 134:105020. [PMID: 34391183 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2021.105020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Environmental challenges in the form of temperature extremes and unusual precipitation, which may lead to prolonged periods outside the thermoneutral zone, can be detrimental to animal physiology. Chacma baboons in the Cape Peninsula of South Africa, one of the highest latitudes at which nonhuman primates are found, experience extremes of both temperature and rainfall, as well as seasonal differences in day length that require animals to condense their daily routine into dramatically reduced daylight hours. Here we examine the effects of these climatic factors on the behavior (activity budgets and foraging patterns) and physiology (fecal glucocorticoid concentrations) of adult females (N = 33) in three groups of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) inhabiting the Cape Peninsula, where temperatures ranged from 7 to 39 °C, monthly rainfall ranged from 2 to 158 mm, and day length varied by 4.5 h across seasons. Climatic variables showed a clear relationship to female baboon glucocorticoid concentrations, which significantly increased with lower temperatures, higher rainfall and shorter day lengths. Activity budgets also differed between summer and winter, with females generally spending less time socializing, moving and resting in the winter compared to summer, with some differences between troops in their feeding-related activities. Cold temperatures accompanied by rainfall and short day lengths may thus represent an ecological constraint for this population. This study highlights the potential impact of anthropogenic climate change on the physiology, behavior, and, ultimately, survival of wildlife populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shahrina Chowdhury
- Department of Anthropology, Brooklyn College, CUNY, 2900 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA; Anthropology Program, Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), New York, NY, USA.
| | - Janine L Brown
- Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, 1500 Remount Rd, Front Royal, VA 22630, USA
| | - Larissa Swedell
- Anthropology Program, Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP), New York, NY, USA; Department of Anthropology, Queens College, CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Blvd, Flushing, NY 11367, USA; Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
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Kamaluddin SN, Matsuda I, Md-Zain BM. Activity Budget and Postural Behaviors in Orangutans on Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island for Assessing Captive Great Ape Welfare. J APPL ANIM WELF SCI 2021; 25:244-255. [PMID: 33843367 DOI: 10.1080/10888705.2021.1910032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Assessments of the welfare status of captive and semi-captive animals often compare how their expression of natural behaviors differs from that of free-ranging conspecifics. From December 2015-2016, we recorded and analyzed the activity budget and postural behaviors of three orangutans in Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island (BMOUI) to evaluate their welfare status. The orangutans' activity budget was dominated by resting (60%), feeding (13%), playing (14%), and moving (9%). Behavioral categories followed a similar trend: resting > feeding > moving > playing, except that the subadult male spent significantly more time playing than the two adults. The most predominant posture was sitting (47.0%), followed by pronograde standing (29.4%), lying (10.5%), and clinging (4.5%). Our results suggest that orangutans on BMOUI engage in less feeding but more resting, and show less postural diversity than free-ranging individuals. We propose that appropriate interventions to shift activity budgets, especially feeding vs. resting, and postural behaviors of captive orangutans toward those found in free-ranging orangutans might be beneficial for their welfare and survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siti Norsyuhada Kamaluddin
- Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
| | - Ikki Matsuda
- Chubu University Academy of Emerging Sciences, Kasugai-shi, Aichi, Japan.,Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.,Japan Monkey Centre, Inuyama, Aichi, Japan.,Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
| | - Badrul Munir Md-Zain
- Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.,Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island Foundation, Perak, Malaysia
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Hernani Lineros LM, Chimènes A, Maille A, Dingess K, Rumiz DI, Adret P. Response of Bolivian gray titi monkeys ( Plecturocebus donacophilus) to an anthropogenic noise gradient: behavioral and hormonal correlates. PeerJ 2020; 8:e10417. [PMID: 33240684 PMCID: PMC7682439 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.10417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Worldwide urban expansion and deforestation have caused a rapid decline of non-human primates in recent decades. Yet, little is known to what extent these animals can tolerate anthropogenic noise arising from roadway traffic and human presence in their habitat. We studied six family groups of titis residing at increasing distances from a busy highway, in a park promoting ecotourism near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. We mapped group movements, sampled the titis’ behavior, collected fecal samples from each study group and conducted experiments in which we used a mannequin simulating a human intrusion in their home range. We hypothesized that groups of titi monkeys exposed to higher levels of anthropogenic noise and human presence would react weakly to the mannequin and show higher concentrations of fecal cortisol compared with groups in least perturbed areas. Sound pressure measurements and systematic monitoring of soundscape inside the titis’ home ranges confirmed the presence of a noise gradient, best characterized by the root-mean-square (RMS) and median amplitude (M) acoustic indices; importantly, both anthropogenic noise and human presence co-varied. Study groups resided in small, overlapping home ranges and they spent most of their time resting and preferentially used the lower forest stratum for traveling and the higher levels for foraging. Focal sampling analysis revealed that the time spent moving by adult pairs was inversely correlated with noise, the behavioral change occurring within a gradient of minimum sound pressures ranging from 44 dB(A) to 52 dB(A). Validated enzyme-immunoassays of fecal samples however detected surprisingly low cortisol concentrations, unrelated to the changes observed in the RMS and M indices. Finally, titis’ response to the mannequin varied according to our expectation, with alarm calling being greater in distant groups relative to highway. Our study thus indicates reduced alarm calling through habituation to human presence and suggests a titis’ resilience to anthropogenic noise with little evidence of physiological stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucero M Hernani Lineros
- Zoología Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.,Carrera de Biología, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia
| | - Amélie Chimènes
- Unité Eco-anthropologie UMR 7206, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Audrey Maille
- Unité Eco-anthropologie UMR 7206, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université de Paris, Paris, France
| | | | - Damián I Rumiz
- Zoología Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.,Fundación Simón I. Patiño, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
| | - Patrice Adret
- Zoología Vertebrados, Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
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Li Y, Ma G, Zhou Q, Huang Z. Seasonal Variation in Activity Budget of Assamese Macaques in Limestone Forest of Southwest Guangxi, China. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2020; 91:495-511. [PMID: 32289788 DOI: 10.1159/000506593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2019] [Accepted: 02/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The activity budget is important for understanding behavioural variability and adaptation in primates. Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) found in the limestone forest of Guangxi Nonggang National Nature Reserve, Southwest China, primarily feed on young leaves of Bonia saxatilis (a shrubby, karst-endemic bamboo). To understand how a specific bamboo leaf-based diet and ecological factors affect activity budget, one group of Assamese macaques was studied using instantaneous scan sampling for 1 year. The macaques spent most of their time feeding (32.7 ± 5.4%), followed by resting (28.6 ± 6.3%), moving (28.6 ± 5.3%), grooming (8.0 ± 3.0%), playing (1.7 ± 1.6%) and other activities (0.4 ± 0.2%). Their activity budget was similar to that of typical frugivorous primates and bamboo-dominated primates, which spent more time on active behaviours (feeding and moving, 61.3 ± 6.0%) than on inactive behaviours (resting and grooming, 36.6 ± 6.4%). The macaques spent significantly more time resting during the fruit-lean season and more time moving during the fruit-rich season. Their activity budget was significantly affected by diet. Resting time increased with decreased fruit consumption, whereas moving time decreased with the increasing mature leaf consumption. Playing time decreased when the macaques consumed more young bamboo leaves. The activity budget was also influenced by food availability and climatic factors. Resting time increased with decreasing temperature, whereas moving time increased with increasing day length and young leaf availability. Grooming time increased with decreasing day length and increasing temperature, and playing time increased with increasing day length. Our findings provide evidence of the importance of diet, food availability, temperature and day length in coping with seasonal variation in ecological factors, highlighting the need to increase knowledge of the behavioural ecology of the Assamese macaques living in the unique limestone forest and to understand the influence of a bamboo-dominated diet and ecological factors on their survival.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuhui Li
- Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guilin, China.,Guangxi Key Laboratory of Rare and Endangered Animal Ecology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China
| | - Guangzhi Ma
- School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Qihai Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guilin, China.,Guangxi Key Laboratory of Rare and Endangered Animal Ecology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China
| | - Zhonghao Huang
- Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guilin, China, .,Guangxi Key Laboratory of Rare and Endangered Animal Ecology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China, .,School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China,
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Wolf TE, Lazarus DD, Opperman P, Heath L, Ganswindt A, Fosgate GT. Impact of foot-and-mouth-disease on goat behaviour after experimental infection with serotype SAT1 virus. Prev Vet Med 2020; 176:104912. [PMID: 32066026 DOI: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.104912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2019] [Revised: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Infectious diseases and parasitic infestations can cause a set of non-specific clinical signs, such as increased body temperature and resting, and a decrease in food intake. These physiological and behavioural changes have an adaptive function facilitating defences against the pathogen and to support immune functions. These so-called' sickness behaviours' can also be used as an early detection tool for disease. Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) still causes great economic losses in endemic countries, especially to smallholder farmers. The aim of this study was to determine if behavioural changes in goats can be used as an early indicator of FMD virus (FMDV) infection. The efficacy of a Southern African Territories (SAT) FMD vaccine was studied on forty South African indigenous goats. Changes in daily activities (resting, feeding, walking), as well as social behaviours (social resting, social feeding, dominance behaviours) were recorded and then compared over time and between clinically affected and unaffected goats. Pedometers were used to estimate average daily steps and to compare between groups of study animals. Eleven goats developed clinical signs of FMD, as well as non-FMD related sicknesses during the course of the study. Overall walking and resting behaviours were not significantly affected by the presence of FMD related clinical signs (p > 0.05). However, during the time of FMDV infection, social resting increased significantly (p < 0.001). Although goats developed FMD lesions on lips and tongues, percentage of time feeding was not affected (p = 0.762), suggesting that the study goats did not perceive the oral lesions as an important disturbance. Similarly, the number of steps did not consistently decrease in the presence of FMD-associated foot lesions. When affected by non-FMD related sicknesses, animals did not have an overall reduction in the time spent feeding (p = 0.867). However, goats affected with non-FMD conditions reduced the amount of social feeding (p = 0.002), potentially avoiding energetically costly competition at the feeding points. Overall, goats affected with FMD did not show more sickness behaviour, suggesting that FMDV infection in goats might not lead to obvious and therefore, easily detectable behavioural changes. This might have implications for farmers and animal health personnel, as individual goats infected with FMDV might be undetected within a flock due to the absence of obvious sickness behaviours, and the virus can therefore be spread more easily between herds through animal movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tanja E Wolf
- University of Pretoria, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Mammal Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa.
| | - David D Lazarus
- University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Department of Production Animal Studies, Onderstepoort, South Africa; National Veterinary Research Institute, Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Laboratory, Vom, Nigeria
| | - Pamela Opperman
- University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Department of Production Animal Studies, Onderstepoort, South Africa; Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research, Transboundary Animal Diseases, Onderstepoort, South Africa
| | - Livio Heath
- Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort Veterinary Research, Transboundary Animal Diseases, Onderstepoort, South Africa
| | - Andre Ganswindt
- University of Pretoria, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Mammal Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Geoffrey T Fosgate
- University of Pretoria, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Department of Production Animal Studies, Onderstepoort, South Africa
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Liu J, Bhumpakphan N. Comparison of Activity Budgets, Diet, and Habitat Utilization between Provisioned and Wild Groups of the François' Langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) in Mayanghe National Nature Reserve, China. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2019; 91:15-30. [PMID: 31466057 DOI: 10.1159/000500444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2018] [Accepted: 04/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The endangered François' langur (Trachypithecus francoisi) is only found from southern China to northeastern Vietnam. This study evaluates behavioral differences between provisioned (Ts, 7 individuals) and wild (Tn, 13 individuals) family groups in Mayanghe National Nature Reserve, China. Scan sampling every 5 min for 12 h daily between the months of March 2013 and February 2014 was used to record behaviors in seven categories. Tn exhibited three main feeding periods daily, whereas Ts showed more variable behavioral patterns that relied on provisions. The Tn alpha male showed twice the amount of guarding behavior compared with the Ts alpha male. The proportion of each habitat type utilized differed significantly between Tn and Ts (χ2[4] = 17,131.4, p < 0.01). Additionally, dietary diversity differed between the two groups: Tn fed on 61 plant species, whereas Ts fed on 43 plant species. Tn rarely ate sweet potato and corn other than discarded remnants of human food (0.2% of their total food sources), whereas these foods represented 21.8% of Ts food sources. We compared data for the two troops to understand this species' activities under human interference, in particular to determine whether provisioning is a suitable strategy for their conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Liu
- Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan,
| | - Naris Bhumpakphan
- Department of Forest Biology, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand
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McKinney T. Ecological and Behavioural Flexibility of Mantled Howlers (Alouatta palliata) in Response to Anthropogenic Habitat Disturbance. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2019; 90:456-469. [PMID: 31238315 DOI: 10.1159/000499825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2018] [Accepted: 03/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
While howlers are the most ecologically flexible of the atelines, they must still respond to issues arising from anthropogenic modifications, such as fragmentation or dietary changes. A group of Alouatta palliata living in a highly modified landscape (commensal group) at the Curú Wildlife Refuge in Costa Rica was compared to howlers with limited human influence (control group). The commensal group had a more frugivorous diet than the control group (H = 9.23, p = 0.002) due to crop-foraging of mango fruits. The commensal group maintained a larger home range than the control group, at 39 and 10 ha, respectively. The commensal group also had increased travel (H = 7.37, p = 0.007) and feeding (H = 7.34, p = 0.007) time, as well as reduced proximity to conspecifics (H = 44.77, p = 0.000). There were no significant differences in rates of either aggressive or affiliative social behaviours. The increased home range, shift in diet, increased travel and foraging time and reduced group cohesion demonstrated by these animals represent responses to the varied utility of available landscapes and the more widely dispersed resources in their range. These data contribute to our understanding of Alouatta, one of the most successful of Neotropical primates in modified landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracie McKinney
- Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, .,University of South Wales, Pontypridd, United Kingdom,
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15
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Wojciechowski FJ, Kaszycka KA, Wielbass AM, Řeháková M. Activity Patterns of Captive Philippine Tarsiers (Tarsius syrichta): Differences Related to Sex and Social Context. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2019; 90:109-123. [PMID: 30826810 DOI: 10.1159/000495612] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2018] [Accepted: 11/19/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Among tarsiers, nocturnal, obligatory faunivorous primates inhabiting islands of South-East Asia, the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius [= Carlito] syrichta) is one of the least studied. To date, activity patterns of this threatened species have not been the subject of any investigation. In the present study, we provide the first quantitative data on how captive male and female T. syrichta apportion their time for various activities in two social contexts: solitary and paired. We found that the sexes do not differ in activity budgets during the non-mating season, both spending most of their time scanning, resting, foraging and travelling. Comparison of activity budgets of the sexes between the mating and non-mating seasons revealed that although both tarsiers noticeably increased travelling time at the expense of time spent resting, the male changed his behaviour to a much greater extent than the female. We also report on fluctuations in the tarsiers' activities throughout a night and compare time budgets of T. syrichta with available data on the western and eastern species of tarsiers. The results extend the current knowledge of tarsier behaviour and may also assist in practical considerations for keeping this highly sensitive, difficult-to-breed species in captivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Filip J Wojciechowski
- Department of Human Evolutionary Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, .,Wings of Serenity Inc., Tagbilaran City, Philippines, .,Department of Biology, University of San Carlos, Cebu City, Philippines,
| | - Katarzyna A Kaszycka
- Department of Human Evolutionary Ecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
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Ladds MA, Salton M, Hocking DP, McIntosh RR, Thompson AP, Slip DJ, Harcourt RG. Using accelerometers to develop time-energy budgets of wild fur seals from captive surrogates. PeerJ 2018; 6:e5814. [PMID: 30386705 PMCID: PMC6204822 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.5814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2018] [Accepted: 09/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Accurate time-energy budgets summarise an animal's energy expenditure in a given environment, and are potentially a sensitive indicator of how an animal responds to changing resources. Deriving accurate time-energy budgets requires an estimate of time spent in different activities and of the energetic cost of that activity. Bio-loggers (e.g., accelerometers) may provide a solution for monitoring animals such as fur seals that make long-duration foraging trips. Using low resolution to record behaviour may aid in the transmission of data, negating the need to recover the device. Methods This study used controlled captive experiments and previous energetic research to derive time-energy budgets of juvenile Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) equipped with tri-axial accelerometers. First, captive fur seals and sea lions were equipped with accelerometers recording at high (20 Hz) and low (1 Hz) resolutions, and their behaviour recorded. Using this data, machine learning models were trained to recognise four states-foraging, grooming, travelling and resting. Next, the energetic cost of each behaviour, as a function of location (land or water), season and digestive state (pre- or post-prandial) was estimated. Then, diving and movement data were collected from nine wild juvenile fur seals wearing accelerometers recording at high- and low- resolutions. Models developed from captive seals were applied to accelerometry data from wild juvenile Australian fur seals and, finally, their time-energy budgets were reconstructed. Results Behaviour classification models built with low resolution (1 Hz) data correctly classified captive seal behaviours with very high accuracy (up to 90%) and recorded without interruption. Therefore, time-energy budgets of wild fur seals were constructed with these data. The reconstructed time-energy budgets revealed that juvenile fur seals expended the same amount of energy as adults of similar species. No significant differences in daily energy expenditure (DEE) were found across sex or season (winter or summer), but fur seals rested more when their energy expenditure was expected to be higher. Juvenile fur seals used behavioural compensatory techniques to conserve energy during activities that were expected to have high energetic outputs (such as diving). Discussion As low resolution accelerometry (1 Hz) was able to classify behaviour with very high accuracy, future studies may be able to transmit more data at a lower rate, reducing the need for tag recovery. Reconstructed time-energy budgets demonstrated that juvenile fur seals appear to expend the same amount of energy as their adult counterparts. Through pairing estimates of energy expenditure with behaviour this study demonstrates the potential to understand how fur seals expend energy, and where and how behavioural compensations are made to retain constant energy expenditure over a short (dive) and long (season) period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monique A Ladds
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.,Marine Predator Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Marcus Salton
- Marine Predator Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - David P Hocking
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Rebecca R McIntosh
- Marine Predator Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Research Department, Phillip Island Nature Parks, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - David J Slip
- Marine Predator Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Robert G Harcourt
- Marine Predator Research Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Khudamrongsawat J, Nakchamnan K, Laithong P, Kongrit C. Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours of Confiscated Slow Loris (Nycticebus spp.) in Thailand. Folia Primatol (Basel) 2018; 89:216-223. [PMID: 29734163 DOI: 10.1159/000487432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2017] [Accepted: 02/03/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The illegal wildlife trade, especially of live animals, is a major threat to slow lorises. Large numbers of confiscated slow lorises are sent to rescue facilities. We aimed to describe the occurrence and types of abnormal repetitive behaviours (ARBs) in 36 confiscated Bengal slow lorises (Nycticebus bengalensis), and examined factors influencing the occurrence of ARBs. We recorded behaviours of the slow lorises using instantaneous scans every 5 min from 19: 00 to 06: 00 h, and observed 6 types of ARBs in 14 (38.9%) individuals. Each individual exhibited 1 type of ARB. The most prevalent ARBs were pacing, rocking and up-down movement, and represented 29.9 ± 13.6% of the activity budget. Sex did not significantly influence the occurrence of ARB. Animals who had been at the centre for longer had a greater tendency to exhibit ARBs, but this was not statistically significant. We suggest that housing slow lorises in large semi-natural enclosures with conspecifics may reduce ARBs. Other factors potentially influencing ARBs, such as cage size, should be further investigated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jenjit Khudamrongsawat
- Animal Systematics and Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Kanyamas Nakchamnan
- Animal Systematics and Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | | | - Chalita Kongrit
- Animal Systematics and Molecular Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
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Abu K, Mekonnen A, Bekele A, Fashing PJ. Diet and activity patterns of Arsi geladas in low-elevation disturbed habitat south of the Rift Valley at Indetu, Ethiopia. Primates 2017; 59:153-161. [PMID: 29230674 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-017-0640-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2017] [Accepted: 11/30/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the basic natural history of threatened primate taxa is crucial to developing and implementing successful conservation strategies for them. Data on feeding ecology and activity patterns are particularly important for identifying the strategies through which primates invest time and foraging effort towards survival and reproduction at a given locale. Here, we report the results of the first study of the diet and activity budget of Arsi geladas, a population of < 1000 individuals endemic to a heavily disturbed region of the southern Ethiopian Highlands and believed to represent a new taxon of geladas. We conducted our research on a band of 34 individuals belonging to five, one-male units at Indetu, eastern Arsi, Ethiopia, from August 2010 to May 2011 (excluding March 2011). Feeding accounted for 41.7% of total scans, followed by moving (20.3%), resting (19.0%), and social behavior (19.0%). Feeding and moving increased and resting and socializing decreased during the dry season when food availability was probably lower than during the wet season. Geladas ate mostly graminoid leaves (51.7% of feeding scans) though they also consumed graminoid rhizomes (24.4%), forb tubers (7.1%), forb leaves (7.1%), cactus, shrub, and tree fruits (3.6%), graminoid corms (1.7%), forb roots (1.6%), and unidentified items (3.0%). Underground foods (corms, rhizomes, roots, and tubers) accounted for 22-47% (mean = 35%) of the monthly (n = 9) diet and were eaten slightly more during the wet season than during the dry season. Contributions of human crops to the gelada diet could not be quantified without creating conflict between farmers and researchers, though we did note that geladas visited farms on 5-10% of study days. Threats from farmers, children, and dogs limited the geladas' access to crops once they entered the farms. Further research involving questionnaire surveys of farmers, direct observation of crop damage by geladas, and DNA metabarcoding of gelada feces are crucial to the development of strategies to mitigate human-gelada conflict in the densely populated Arsi Zone of Ethiopia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelil Abu
- Department of Zoological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Addisu Mekonnen
- Department of Zoological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. .,Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway.
| | - Afework Bekele
- Department of Zoological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Peter J Fashing
- Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, 0316, Oslo, Norway.,Department of Anthropology and Environmental Studies Program, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, 92834, USA
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Mendonça RS, Kanamori T, Kuze N, Hayashi M, Bernard H, Matsuzawa T. Development and behavior of wild infant-juvenile East Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) in Danum Valley. Primates 2016; 58:211-224. [PMID: 27600514 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-016-0567-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2016] [Accepted: 08/14/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Orangutans have a long period of immaturity and the longest inter-birth interval (IBI) of all mammals, which can be explained by their solitary life style, preventing the mother from rearing two offspring simultaneously (solitary life hypothesis) [corrected]. We collected data on mother-offspring dyads living in a primary lowland forest in Danum Valley, East Borneo in an effort to examine the developmental and behavioral patterns of the subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio. We analyzed developmental changes in mother-offspring distance, contact, and activity budgets in orangutans ranging from 1 to 7 years of age. The results indicated decreased resting and playing with increasing age, whereas feeding, traveling and social play all increased significantly. Mothers' feeding and traveling time were good predictors of their offspring's feeding and traveling activities. Mother-offspring contact lasted longer in resting contexts; contact during traveling was almost non-existent after 4 years of age. Comparisons with previously published data on the Sumatran species Pongo abelli revealed no fundamental differences in these behavioral measures. However, a shorter association time with the mother after behavioral independence is documented for this East Bornean population in comparison to Sumatran populations. These results are best explained by the solitary life hypothesis, in agreement with previous studies. We suggest that environmental constraints in Bornean forests, as well as a lower population density, should be considered when interpreting the differences between Sumatran and Bornean orangutans in both the period of association with mother and the IBI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renata S Mendonça
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan.
| | - Tomoko Kanamori
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
| | - Noko Kuze
- National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan.,Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Misato Hayashi
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
| | - Henry Bernard
- Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
| | - Tetsuro Matsuzawa
- Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan
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Hammond TT, Springthorpe D, Walsh RE, Berg-Kirkpatrick T. Using accelerometers to remotely and automatically characterize behavior in small animals. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2016; 219:1618-24. [PMID: 26994177 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.136135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Accepted: 03/09/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Activity budgets in wild animals are challenging to measure via direct observation because data collection is time consuming and observer effects are potentially confounding. Although tri-axial accelerometers are increasingly employed for this purpose, their application in small-bodied animals has been limited by weight restrictions. Additionally, accelerometers engender novel complications, as a system is needed to reliably map acceleration to behaviors. In this study, we describe newly developed, tiny acceleration-logging devices (1.5-2.5 g) and use them to characterize behavior in two chipmunk species. We collected paired accelerometer readings and behavioral observations from captive individuals. We then employed techniques from machine learning to develop an automatic system for coding accelerometer readings into behavioral categories. Finally, we deployed and recovered accelerometers from free-living, wild chipmunks. This is the first time to our knowledge that accelerometers have been used to generate behavioral data for small-bodied (<100 g), free-living mammals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Talisin T Hammond
- Department of Integrative Biology, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA
| | - Dwight Springthorpe
- Department of Integrative Biology, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA
| | - Rachel E Walsh
- Department of Integrative Biology, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3160, USA
| | - Taylor Berg-Kirkpatrick
- Language Technologies Institute, 5000 Forbes Ave., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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Mir ZR, Noor A, Habib B, Veeraswami GG. Seasonal population density and winter survival strategies of endangered Kashmir gray langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in Dachigam National Park, Kashmir, India. Springerplus 2015; 4:562. [PMID: 26543697 PMCID: PMC4627992 DOI: 10.1186/s40064-015-1366-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2015] [Accepted: 09/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The population density of Kashmir gray langurs (Semnopithecus ajax) was studied in Dachigam National Park (DNP), Kashmir using distance sampling method. A total of 13 transects (1.5–2.5 km in length) were surveyed in the intensive study area (~90 km2) yielding 170 encounters in different seasons of the study period (2011–2013). Some aspects of behavior and feeding were also studied during the winter months (Dec–Feb) of 2012 and 2013 inside DNP. We used instantaneous scan sampling to collect behavioral data determining the time budget and diet of langurs in winter conditions. Results suggested that the density of Kashmir gray langurs varied marginally across seasons, with the highest density recorded during winter and lowest during summer season. Langurs spent most of their time in carrying out various social activities (34.32 %) and least in resting (18.41 %). Langurs fed upon 13 plant species (belonging to 12 families) and consumed a substantial proportion of bark (37.4 %) in their diet. We conclude that langur density is low in DNP as compared to other plain areas of the Indian subcontinent and langurs in DNP have balanced their time budget and diet so as to increase their chances of survival in the unfavorably cold and food scarce winter conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zaffar Rais Mir
- Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, P.O Box No.18, Dehradun, 248001 India
| | - Athar Noor
- Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, P.O Box No.18, Dehradun, 248001 India
| | - Bilal Habib
- Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, P.O Box No.18, Dehradun, 248001 India
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Gutowsky SE, Gutowsky LFG, Jonsen ID, Leonard ML, Naughton MB, Romano MD, Shaffer SA. Daily activity budgets reveal a quasi-flightless stage during non-breeding in Hawaiian albatrosses. Mov Ecol 2014; 2:23. [PMID: 25709832 PMCID: PMC4337467 DOI: 10.1186/s40462-014-0023-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2014] [Accepted: 10/09/2014] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Animals adjust activity budgets as competing demands for limited time and energy shift across life history phases. For far-ranging migrants and especially pelagic seabirds, activity during breeding and migration are generally well studied but the "overwinter" phase of non-breeding has received less attention. Yet this is a critical time for recovery from breeding, plumage replacement and gaining energy stores for return migration and the next breeding attempt. We aimed to identify patterns in daily activity budgets (i.e. time in flight, floating on the water's surface and active foraging) and associated spatial distributions during overwinter for the laysan Phoebastria immutabilis and black-footed P. nigripes albatrosses using state-space models and generalized additive mixed-effects models (GAMMs). We applied these models to time-series of positional and immersion-state data from small light- and conductivity-based data loggers. RESULTS During overwinter, both species exhibited a consistent 'quasi-flightless' stage beginning c. 30 days after initiating migration and lasting c. 40 days, characterized by frequent long bouts of floating, very little sustained flight, and infrequent active foraging. Minimal daily movements were made within localized areas during this time; individual laysan albatross concentrated into the northwest corner of the Pacific while black-footed albatross spread widely across the North Pacific Ocean basin. Activity gradually shifted toward increased time in flight and active foraging, less time floating, and greater daily travel distances until colony return c. 155 days after initial departure. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate that these species make parallel adjustments to activity budgets at a daily time-scale within the overwinter phase of non-breeding despite different at-sea distributions and phenologies. The 'quasi-flightless' stage likely reflects compromised flight from active wing moult while the subsequent increase in activity may occur as priorities shift toward mass gain for breeding. The novel application of a GAMM-based approach used in this study offers the possibility of identifying population-level patterns in shifting activity budgets over extended periods while allowing for individual-level variation in the timing of events. The information gained can also help to elucidate the whereabouts of areas important at different times across life history phases for far-ranging migrants.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lee FG Gutowsky
- />Fish Ecology & Conservation Physiology Lab, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON Canada
| | - Ian D Jonsen
- />Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW Australia
| | - Marty L Leonard
- />Biology Department, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS Canada
| | - Maura B Naughton
- />USFWS, Pacific Region, Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs, Portland, OR USA
| | - Marc D Romano
- />USFWS, Pacific Region, Migratory Birds and Habitat Programs, Portland, OR USA
| | - Scott A Shaffer
- />Department of Biological Sciences, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA USA
- />Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA USA
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