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ANTH 311 > Community Ecology and Conservation > Flashcards

Community Ecology and Conservation Flashcards

1
Q

Describe a home range

A

The widest area in which a group of animals travel
- circumscribable area in which all daily and seasonal activities take place

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2
Q

Why is a home range an important concept?

A
  1. testing hypotheses derived from behavioural ecology theories (ex: food distribution)
  2. applied conservation (ex: how much space does a species/population need)
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3
Q

What are the two methods of determining home range?

A
  1. grid count method - mark the position of the animals on a map, superimpose a grid, count the number of grids entered and calculate area
    - square represent some unit
  2. Minimum Convex Polygon - mark position of the animals on a map, draw a polygon around all the points and calculate the area of the polygon
    - linking all the points from the farthest edge
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4
Q

Minimum Convex Polygon

A

-easy to calculate
-comparable between sites (if everyone is using the same data system)
- overestimates the area because it takes the widest points around an area
- longer the study, the larger the area

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5
Q

Grid Cell Count

A

-Size of cell greatly influences area
-Core use easily calculated (area that is more frequently used)

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6
Q

What are the challenges of determining home range ?

A
  • The species of primate and the topography of their environment can make it difficult to measure.
  • Group composition can influence size (ex: spider monkeys have more females = wider range, while the males in the group stick together)
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7
Q

Core Area

A

areas in which the group spends disproportionately large amounts of time (ex: main feeding trees, sleeping trees - areas integral to daily life)
- has potential to be classified as territory if species actively defends

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8
Q

Daily Path Length

A

distance an animal or group travels in a day

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9
Q

Territory

A

Area that is actively defended and exclusively used (keeps other conspecifics out)

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10
Q

Territoriality

A

behaviour (active defence and exclusive use) associated with territory use
- can be costly: fighting costs, time taken away from finding food & reproduction

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11
Q

Functions of territoriality ?

A
  1. Defence of food supply
  2. Defence of females
  3. Phylogeny
  4. Link to monogamy –> females and male pairs fight for territory
    - there are different explanations in different cases and between species; probably not a single phenomenon
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12
Q

Ranges of intergroup interactions?

A

Range from friendly in some species to very aggressive in other species
- some join supetroops - hamadryas, geladas (stable mating unit, fission during the day to forage but join back at night)
-some are violently territorial (chimps and spider monkeys)
- some groups have extensive range overlap and just avoid each other

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13
Q

Intergroup Dominance

A

When one group is able to consistently displace another group regardless of where they meet (dominance)
- which group is dominant depends on group size, sometimes the number of adult males or adult females

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14
Q

Interspecific Interactions - Allopatry

A

when the geographic ranges of 2 species do not overlap, they are geographically separated from one another (ex: lemurs and lorises)

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15
Q

Interspecific interactions - Sympatry

A

when two or more species have overlapping geographic ranges. result is competition for resources - the more closely related the species, the more intense the competition (ex: spider, howlers, cebus)

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16
Q

Niche divergence / partitioning

A

differentiation of species-specific adaptations that exist in same area with similar ecological requirements
- allows for reduction of competition in similar species through separation of their ecology.

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17
Q

Effects of interspecific competition

A

Species can experience both contest and scramble competition.
Less successful competitor generally will experience a reduction in:
- population density (depending on carrying capacity)
- geographic distribution
- ranging patterns
- dietary diversity

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18
Q

Benefits of Interspecific interactions

A
  • Access to otherwise inaccessible food source (ex: clumsy frugivores do not eat whole fruit, drops and other species eat)
  • increased predator detection and warning
  • improved competitive ability
  • social benefits (ex: juvenile play in howlers and spiders)
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19
Q

Do primates help or hinder plants and forest environment?

A

Hinder - flower and seed predators when no dispersal or pollination, damages to limbs and bark
Helps - pollination and seed dispersal
Forest environments can do better when primates are present in many plants only way of seed dispersal is through primates

20
Q

Theoretical and Empirical background of predation and infanticide

A

Theoretical - both are credited with being a major force in the evolution or primate social life
Empirical - both are relatively rare behaviours and thus we have relatively little good solid quantitative data
- actual evidence: both rely on the existence of counterstrategies

21
Q

What are chimpanzees predators of?

A

galagoes, bushbabies, blue monkeys, red tail monkeys, baboons, black and white colobus, red colobus (35 types of vertebrate animals)
- hunting levels varies based on experience of the group

22
Q

What are baboons predators of?

A

small deer and vervet monkeys

23
Q

what are blue monkeys predators of?

A

galagos and bushbabies

24
Q

What are the four species types of conservation?

A
  1. keystone
  2. foundation
    3.indicator
  3. flagship
25
Keystone species
play an important role in its ecosystem - has a disproportionate effect on its environment relative to its abundance - ex: mainly top predators and also mutualists such as primates as seed dispersers
26
Foundation species
a dominant primary producer in an ecosystem both in terms of abundance and influence - primates are not foundation species
27
Indicator species
Species whose presence may indicate the health of the environment - indicates some condition in the environment is met (ex: spider monkeys and disturbance )
28
Flagship species
Useful in protecting the entire ecosystem of the species and all specie within it - used as marketing to gain support of the public - chosen for their vulnerability and attractiveness
29
Species level conservation
Traditional, focuses on saving a species - the four species
30
Landscape-level conservation
More recent trend - focuses on specific area of land, often of large scale - conserve the species living there - better aligns with processes impacting species ex: deals with habitat fragmentation
31
Intrinsic factors in species vulnerability
- body size: large more vulnerable to hunters & require more food to survive and space to live - pace of reproduction and life history: longer/slower more vulnerable - home range size: species requiring larger areas are more vulnerable - territorial: more vulnerable because can't move them and can be killed in need their territory - diet: specialists (fruigivores) more vulnerable - geographic distribution - smaller more vulnerable - population size: smaller more vulnerable
32
Extrinsic Factors in Species Vulnerability
Non-anthropogenic (not by humans) Anthropogenic (caused by humans)
33
Non-anthropogenic extrinsic factors in specie vulnerability
1. Environmental stochasticity (ex: weather disturbances) 2. Demographic stochasticity (ex: unbalanced age sex class) - effects are greater in smaller populations
34
Anthropogenic extrinsic factors in species vulnerability
1. Habitat loss (most immediate threat( - logging -agriculture -fires -creation of edge effects
35
Explain edge effect
Effects physical, biological and synergistic components of fragmented patches - physical: microclimate changes in light, temp, wind and humidity ~100m in - biological: pioneer species take advantage of light and overgrown, invasive organisms and bird density ~100m in - synergistic: dryness causes fires, and hunting pressure by humans and other predators (easier to walk in from the edge)
36
What are the general predictions for primates affected by the edge effect?
- frugivores will be edge intolerant - folivores will be edge neutral - insectivores will be edge tolerant
37
Effects of resource extraction on primates
immediate impacts: - noise and disruption - loss of specific resources (food or sleeping trees) = switch to low quality food, more resting and more fissioning to reduce intraspecific competition - high infant mortality - disease transmission a threat if populations are forced into close and constant contact with each other
38
What are the major threats to primate populations
1. Habitat destruction 2. Hunting for food (second greatest threat to primates behind habitat loss) 3. live trade - entertainment, pets, parts (medicinal or ornamental) and research
39
What is the primary reason for hunting primates?
1. Subsistence - to feed family 2. Market to sell - if selling, often not hunting in ethical ways (guns) and killing a lot at once
40
What are the secondary reasons for hunting primates?
1. pest control (farmers/ generally protecting lifestyle) 2. trophy hunting 3. medicinal 4. pet trade --> removes animals from intact habitat and often have to kill mothers to obtain offspring (only 1/10 offspring survive)
41
Explain the ecological noble savage concept
-traditional hunter-gatherers are natural conservationists - HG have understanding of balance and don't overconsume or are there just small enough densities of HG communities to not have a great impact
42
Tragedy of the Commons
-Resources owned by a group are inevitably over-exploited -Individual rationality in conflict with collective (common) good -free-riders win out over good citizens -short term competitive advantages lead to long-term destruction (a community owned resource will get over exploited by one person before it can be done by someone else)
43
What are the anthropocentric reasons for primate conservation
1. human evolution 2. social and cultural importance 3. human health (good biomedical model)
44
What are the biocentric reasons for primate conservation
1. Biological interest/important to ecosystems 2. umbrella species (protect species in environment under them) 3. intrinsic value (ethics) - hard to overcome local people's ideas and make arguments that primates have the same right to live there as the local people do 4. high extinction risk
45
How the 6th mass extinction might differ from previous mass extinctions
1. cause- human induced 2. rate - possibly happening at a greater rate 3. possible breath of taxonomic groups affected 4. it can be stopped or slowed if humans wanted to

ANTH 311 (4 decks)

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