Ecology Flashcards
what latitude range do most primates live in?
- 10 degrees north and south of equator
- rarely dip into temperate zones
example of primate that lives in temperate zone
- japanese macaque
- eats bark and pinecones because food is limited in the winter
squirrel monkey - distribution
-amazon
-central america
-costa rica
LARGE DISTRIBUTION
cotton topped tamarin - distribution
-north western Colombia
SMALL DISTRIBUTION
uakari - distribution
-lives on 2 sides of amazon
-Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela
LARGE DISTRIBUTION
baboon - distribution
-subsaharan Africa
-South Africa
-successful species
LARGE DISTRIBUTION
geleta and hamadryas baboon - distribution
-central eastern Africa
SMALL DISTRIBUTION
talapoin monkey - distribution
-central western Africa
SMALL DISTRIBUTION
chimpanzee - distribution
-central Africa
-equator/rainforest
SMALL DISTRIBUTION
golden-lion tamarin - distribution
-Brazil
-endangered
SMALL DISTRIBUTION
owl monkey - distribution
-south america
LARGE DISTRIBUTION
nocturnal or diurnal foraging activity - prosimians vs monkeys
- prosimians: nocturnal
- monkeys: diurnal (except owl monkey - successful because there are no prosimians in south america)
Habitats with monkeys
- Rainforest
- Deciduous seasonal forest/temperate woodland
- Montane forest
- Grassland savannah/woodland mosaic-desert
rainforest habitat
-carrying capacity?
- equator
- highest carrying capacity
montane forest
-which monkey?
-mountain gorilla
grassland savannah
- which monkeys?
- problem?
- galago
- macaques
- vervet
- hamadryas baboon
- gelata baboon
- *ground predator exposure
top canopy
-which monkey
-spider monkey
middle canopy
-which monkey
-capuchin (pushed intelligence to live here)
niches - categories
- insectivores
- sapivores
- frugivores
- folivores
- opportunistic omnivores
insectivores
-smaller primates
sapivores
- lemurs
- pygmy marmoset
frugivores
- orangutan
- pretty much all monkeys like fruit
folivores
- all primates
- especially spider monkey
opportunistic omnivore
-chimpanzees - predator for red colobus monkeys
George Schaller (1963)
- primate and field ecology research
- mountain gorilla
percent of leaves in diet - graph
- x axis: body weight
- y axis: percent of leaves in diet
- galago–>tamarin–>macaque–>chimp–>gorilla
adaptations for vegetarianism
- sportive lemur
- langur/howler
- colobus
- gorilla
- sportive lemur: copophagia
- langur/howler: elongated intestine
- colobus: sacculated stomach
- gorilla: long digestive tract
plant adaptations to limit consumption
- new leaves?
- sunlight?
- monkey examples (5)
- chemicals that must be tolerated by monkeys
- new leaves have more difficult to digest chemicals
- sunlight can increase chemicals
- howler monkey: can eat new leaves, red leaves and sun leaves
- bamboo and gentle lemur
- aye aye - coconuts and bark
- tarsier can spin head 180 degrees
- chimps and self-medication
extreme example of monkey adaptations to plant chemicals
- bamboo and gentle lemur
- bamboo-cyanide
- gentle lemur is a bamboo specialist; should be dead based on amount it consumes
- 500 mg; 12x lethal dose
chimpanzees and self-medication
-eat certain plants to get rid of parasites
finding food in large groups
-food is predictable, clumped and abundant
finding food in small groups/solitarily
-food is unpredictable dispersed and sparse
K strategists
- primates have less offspring
- want them to survive
- stable and predictable
- slow development
- high offspring investment
- *Larger primates
R strategists
- choose to adapt to world by having lots of children
- high infant mortality
- variable, unpredictable
- low offspring investment
- *marmosets and tamarins kind of
seasonal breeding
- common in monkeys
- births oriented to wet season when there is more food
carrying capacity
- fewer speices in fragmented forest compared to undisturbed forest
- decreases with disturbance
- south america blackwater forest
South American Blackwater forest
- low carrying capacity because of nutrient runoff into the water
- the white water forests have a higher carrying capacity
What percent of monkey’s diet is composed of leaves?
- 20%
- need special adaptations to eat more than that
different types of frugivores - good and bad things about them
- speed predators: reduce overabundance; destroy seeds
- seed dispersers: helpful to trees; don’t get digested
extreme environments
- dry grassland
- high altitude
- harsh habitat
- urban environment
- ocean
- rivers
monkeys that live in dry grassland + characteristics
- gelada baboon
- forage grass and seeds during the day
- sleep on rocks at night
monkeys that live in high altitude with snow and high seasonality
- japanese snow monkey
- golden monkeys in China - eat pinecones
monkeys that live in harsh habitats
- Sifaka
- very sharp terrain; dry
- tsingy nature reserve in northern madagascar
monkeys that live in urban environments
-India - live on the streets
monkey that lives in/near the ocean
-crab-eating macaque
monkey that lives in/near river
-proboscis monkey
squirrel monkey example about carrying capacity
- squirrel monkey dealer put too many monkeys on an island
- number of squirrel monkeys decreased when it was expected to increase
- carrying capacity was not big enough
what time of year do lemurs give birth during
-November to January
Sympatric Species vs Allopatric Speices
- sympatric: organisms evolve from the same ancestor into different species in the same location
- allopatric: organisms evolve from similar ancestors into different species in different locations
example of sympatric species living together
- number of speices studied
- location
- name of researcher
- adaptations
- type of distribution; food
- case study of 8 species in Suriname
- tamarin, squirrel monkey
- spider monkey
- howler monkey
- 2 species of saki
- 2 species of capuchin
- Russ Mittermier; Raleighvallen Voltzberg
- vertical and horizontal distribution; not directly competing - bigger primates are higher up and smaller primates are lower down
- different food specializations - squirrel monkeys (understory-bugs), bigger monkeys (leaves)
predatory-prey study - African Savannah
- main predators
- total kills
- findings?
- looked at total number of kills (46,0000)
- 75 baboons killed
- main prey: fossa, striped civet, yellow-billed kite, ground boa
- other predators: leopards, lions, hyenas, crocodiles, python
- baboons are not the primary food source - successful
Birds of prey in Guyana
- good predators
- killed 47 monkeys of 141 kills
- 1 cebid monkey per month
Ecuadorian hunter/gatherer tribe
- 3 year time period
- 562 wooly monkeys, 246 howler
- eat them
Chimpanzees as predators
- what do they eat?
- what increases success?
- eat red colobus monkeys
- number of hunters in the part increases percent success
anti-predator defenses
- cryptic hiding
- leaping locomotion
- large groups
- multi-male groups
- communication and social strategies
- higher reproductive rate to overcome mortality
Parasite Avoidance in baboons
- person who observed it
- location
- parasite name
- mechanism
- Glenn Hausfater
- Amboseli
- avoided life cycle of intestinal parasite called strongyloides
- parasite takes 2-3 days to hatch and is infectious for 4.5 days; neutralized by sun and removal by dung beetles
- baboons move away and come back in about 9 days when threat of parasite is gone
parasite avoidance in capuchins
- high percent of monkeys carry parasites
- groom each other to remove ticks and check for parasites
GI parasites in Howler monkeys - study
- study question
- researcher
- findings
- are parasites worse in disturbed forest than undisturbed forest?
- collected fecal matter and looked for parasites
- found that parasite load is higher in disturbed forest
Microbial exchange across species
- researcher
- monkeys studies
- Tony Goldberg
- looked at fecal matter and realized that there is an exchange of bacteria between humans and animals
- studied BW colobus, red colobus, red-tailed Guenon
Herpes saimari
- who is affected?
- how is it transmitted?
- who is NOT affected?
- latent virus in squirrel monkeys or capuchins
- vertical transmission (mother–>offspring)
- infectious and lethal to tamarins and marmosets, spider monkeys and owl monkeys (causes leukemia)
- this type also doesn’t affect humans
- possible germ warfare??
How primates deal with complex environments
- limit land use
- activity during many parts of the day (cathemeral - diurnal and nocturnal)
capuchin vs. chimpanzee - foraging times
-what do they have in common?
- chimps: rainy season
- capuchin: dry season
- both opportunistic omnivores
