Keywords :
Food proximity
Habitat degradation
Macaca leonina
Predation avoidance
Sleeping site selection
บทคัดย่อ :
Primates must select sleeping sites carefully to maximize fitness. In habitats with
diminished quality and availability of resources, sleeping site selection becomes an
even more crucial aspect of primate survival. We investigated sleeping site selection
patterns in northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) living in a degraded habitat
by testing the hypotheses of random selection, predation avoidance, and food proximity.
We followed a group of northern pigtailed macaques in Sakaerat Biosphere
Reserve, northeastern Thailand, over 14 months between February 2017 and October
2018. We identified 107 total sleeping sites and analyzed the forest structure at 50
sleeping sites and 50 randomly selected available sites.While the rate of reuse was low
and random (N = 15), with sleeping sites characterized by a low availability of large
and tall trees, the selection pattern was not random, with sleeping sites occurring more
often in familiar areas (i.e., high site fidelity), and those with a greater number of stems
and a higher canopy. These sleeping site characteristics were likely selected to decrease
detection by predators and facilitate macaque escape in case of attack, supporting the
predator avoidance hypothesis. However, food proximity also played a key role in
sleeping site selection in this degraded habitat.Macaques often slept within, or close to,
their first/last feeding site and selected their sleeping sites following food distribution,
presumably to maximize energy intake. Our results present a new impact of habitat
degradation on sleeping site selection in large primate groups: the use of a high number
sleeping sites in order to cope with low availability and scattered distribution of fruit
resources.
เอกสารอ้างอิง :
Gazagne, E., Savini, T., Ngoprasert, D., Poncin, P., Huynen, M. C., & Brotcorne, F. (2020b). When northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) cannot select for ideal sleeping sites in a degraded habitat. International Journal of Primatology, 41(4), 614-633.
