Patch depletion behavior differs between sympatric folivorous primates |
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Authors: | Kaia J Tombak Andrea J Reid Colin A Chapman Jessica M Rothman Caley A Johnson Rafael Reyna-Hurtado |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada;(2) Department of Anthropology, and McGill School of Environment, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, H3A 2T7, Canada;(3) Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460, USA;(4) Department of Anthropology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, USA;(5) Department of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA;(6) New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY 10024, USA; |
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Abstract: | Food competition in group-living animals is commonly accepted as a critical determinant of foraging strategies and social
organization. Here we examine food patch depletion behavior in a leaf-eating (folivorous) primate, the guereza (Colobus guereza). Snaith and Chapman (2005) studied the sympatric folivorous red colobus (Procolobus rufomitratus), which shares many food resources with the guereza. They determined that red colobus deplete the patches (feeding trees)
they use, while we found contrary evidence for guerezas using the same methods. We found that the time guerezas spent feeding
in a patch was affected by neither tree size, an indicator of food abundance, nor the size of the feeding group, an indicator
of feeding competition. For their principal food item (young leaves), intake rate remained constant and coincided with a decrease
in the distance moved to find food within a patch, implying that guerezas do not deplete patches. This points to a fundamental
difference in the use of food by guerezas and red colobus, which may be linked to the large difference in their group sizes
and/or to a disparity in their digestive physiologies. However, further analyses revealed that the number of feeders within
a patch did not affect patch depletion patterns in either species, leaving the potential for a physiological basis as the
most plausible explanation. Our research highlights the need for a more critical examination of folivorous primate feeding
ecology and social behavior, as all folivorous primates are typically lumped into a single category in socioecological models,
which may account for conflicting evidence in the literature. |
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