Foraging strategies, diet and competition in olive baboons

Baboons--Behavior;Cercopithecidae

Barton, Robert A. ; Whiten, Andrew ; Whiten, Andrew

University:University of St Andrews

Department:Biology (School of)

关键词: Baboons--Behavior;    Cercopithecidae;   

Others  :  https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/2767/RobertABartonPhDThesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y

来源: DR-NTU

【 摘 要 】

Savannah baboons are amongst the most intensively studied taxaof primates, but our understanding of their foragingstrategies and diet selection, and the relationship of theseto social processes is still rudimentary. These issues wereaddressed in a 12-month field study of olive baboons (Papioanubis) on the Laikipia plateau in Kenya.Seasonal fluctuations in food availability were closelyrelated to rainfall patterns, with the end of the dry seasonrepresenting a significant energy bottleneck. Thedistribution of water and of sleeping sites were thepredominant influences on home range use, but certainvegetation zones were occupied preferentially in seasons whenfood availability within them was high.The influence of rainfall on monthly variation in dietarycomposition generally mirrored inter-population variation.Phytochemical analysis revealed that simplistic dietarytaxonomies can be misleading in the evaluation of dietquality. Food preferences were correlated with nutrient andsecondary compound content. The differences between males andfemales in daily nutrient intakes were smaller than expectedon the basis of the great difference in body size; this waspartly attributable to the energetic costs of reproduction,and possibly also to greater energetic costs ofthermoregulation and lower digestive efficiency in females.A strongly linear dominance hierarchy was found amongst theadult females. Dominance rank was positively correlated withfood ingestion rates and daily intakes, but not with timespent feeding or with dietary quality or diversity. In aprovisioned group, high-ranking females occupied centralpositions, while low-ranking females were more peripheral andwere supplanted more frequently. In the naturally-foraginggroup, the intensity of competition was related to the patternof food distribution, but not to food quality, and was greaterin the dry season than in the wet season. The number ofneighbours and rates of supplanting were correlated with rank,and evidence was presented that high-rankers monopolisedarboreal feeding sites.