Great apes have their first offspring between 10 and 16 years old and long interbirth intervals of 3 to 8 years. Studying energy balance may help us to understand how modified and threatened habitats may affect great apes, especially since these species are all classified as endangered or critically endangered and have slow life history traits. Today, agricultural expansion is one of the major threats to tropical forests, the main habitat of great apes, which often live outside protected areas and may use forest–farm mosaics and human-dominated landscapes for foraging. In addition to these seasonal variations, there are interindividual differences in activity budget and energy balance based on sex, age, weight, reproductive status, or dominance rank. However, due to their lower nutrient quality, fallback foods must be consumed in large quantities to supplement fruit intake, which alters the activity budget by increasing daily feeding and travel time at the expense of resting time ( Pan troglodytes verus Alouatta palliata mexicana ). ), or multiple vegetal parts for neotropical primates ( Ateles belzebuth, Lagothrix lagotricha, Cebus apella, and Alouatta seniculus ). For example, fibrous items allow frugivorous primates to maintain stable carbohydrate levels, for example, terrestrial herbaceous vegetation (THV) for chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes spp. They also expand their diet range by consuming fallback foods, i.e., low-quality items that are eaten in large quantity when preferred foods are not available. Consequently, their seed-dispersal role may be modified, which may affect the regeneration of already threatened forests and, in the medium term, the quality of the primate diet in terms of diversity and abundance.ĭuring periods of low fruit availability, primates may reduce group size by decreasing food competition ( Pan troglodytes spp. Thus, developing effective foraging strategies to survive may affect the behavior of frugivorous species, such as some non-human primates. ![]() The distribution of trees of the same species can fluctuate in space with clumpy, uniform, or random patterns, and fruiting patterns can be synchronous or asynchronous. ![]() Tropical forests are complex habitats with unpredictable fruit availability and large intraspecies and intersite variations. Thus, their contribution to seed dispersal and forest regeneration in this area is not affected. Despite the availability of nutritious domestic resources, chimpanzees still exploit wild fruits and do not limit their movements. No behavioral or energy modification was observed regarding wild resources either. However, no significant variation was found in daily paths and energy expenditures according to maize availability. The chimpanzees opportunistically consume maize and exploit it by resting less during maize season. We found that the Sebitoli area is a highly nutritive habitat for chimpanzees, with large and caloric wild fruits available all year long. Based on focal nest-to-nest data, we analyzed their diet, activity budget, and energy balance depending on wild fruit and maize availability. ![]() We monitored 20 chimpanzees over 37 months in Kibale National Park, Uganda, with maize gardens at the forest edge. We aimed at understanding whether maize presence close to the natural habitat of chimpanzees, a threatened species, would lead to significant behavioral modifications. Agricultural expansion threatens primate habitats and populations (e.g., disease transmission, agrochemical exposure), but it also increases crop feeding opportunities. ![]() Frugivorous primates have developed several strategies to deal with wild fruit scarcity, such as modifying their activity budget or enlarging their diet.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |