Adaptive space use by baboons (Papio ursinus) in response to management interventions in a human-changed landscape

Abstract

Growing human populations are increasingly competing with wildlife for limited resources and this can result in chronic human-wildlife conflict. In the Cape Peninsula, South Africa, chacma baboons Papio ursinus are habitual raiders of urban and rural areas, foraging on a variety of human-derived foods. Raiding behaviour is considered a threat to human health and safety, may result in damage to property, and has adverse welfare and conservation impacts on baboons. To mitigate this conflict, Cape Town municipality employs field rangers with paintball markers that 'herd' baboons away from the urban edge. While this strategy is successful in reducing the time baboons spend in urban spaces, baboons still raid successfully. Here, we use direct observation and GPS data to investigate how one troop uses the peri-urban space and exploits human-derived foods in urban areas and on farmland. We contrast this behaviour with the individual management strategies adopted by field rangers which we assessed in individual interviews. We find that baboons utilize space (1) where inter-individual variation in field ranger management strategy is highest, (2) that is close to refuges in forested habitat and (3) that is close to the urban edge. Overall, this suggests adaptive space use by the baboons, whereby they minimize distances to refuges and potential food rewards, while exploiting uncertainty in risk variability that arises due to inter-individual differences in ranger management strategy. Together these results highlight the need for ranger consensus to reinforce management efficiency when dealing with a highly adaptive primate.Adaptive space use by baboons G. Fehlmann et al.

Identification of behaviours from accelerometer data in a wild social primate

“…These behaviours represented 93.3% of the time budget recorded from video observations and the first ethogram from acceleration data for a wild non-human primate. Behaviours relevant to raiding behaviours (foraging, running, walking and resting), which are important with respect to the study population [33], were successfully identified with good precision and recall (>85%). We discuss the variables calculated from our accelerometer that contributed to identification of these behaviours in turn.…”

“…We studied the 'Constantia' baboon troop that ranges in a varied landscape at the edge of the City of Cape Town (S −34.0349, E 18.4156) (for more details see [33]) for 30 days from mid-May to mid-June 2015. The troop comprised 13 adult males, 25 adult females, 4 subadult males and approximately 30 juveniles of both sexes.…”

Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter

“…Currently, primates feeding on crops (commonly termed “crop raiding”) is not considered a major cause of global primate population declines by the IUCN because much of the conflict is local in its occurrence, impact, and the types of crops and primate species affected ( 9 , 29 – 33 ). There are areas of the world, such as parts of North Africa and Asia, where humans tolerate primates as crop pests because of religious beliefs, cultural traditions, and economic benefit ( 29 ).…”

“…in Africa and orangutans ( Pongo spp.) in Southeast Asia] ( 9 , 31 – 33 ), culturally and economically appropriate management interventions can mitigate the impact ( 9 , 33 ). Human-primate conflict due to primates feeding on crops remains a persistent problem and is likely to increase because primate-suitable habitat is converted into agricultural fields or gardens in response to local and global market demands (Fig.…”

Primate Infectious Disease Ecology: Insights and Future Directions at the Human-Macaque Interface

“…Specifically, ethnoprimatology is related to understanding how humans and primates impact each other's niche construction, behavioral biology, and health-related outcomes (Dore et al 2017;Fuentes 2012;Fuentes and Hockings 2010). Unsurprisingly, human-macaque interfaces in North Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia have been the primary foci of most ethnoprimatological research, with some more recent studies in Africa also having been conducted on baboons (Fehlmann et al 2016;Kaplan et al 2011;Hoffman and O'Riain 2012), chimpanzees (Hockings et al 2012), and lemurs (Loudon et al 2017). To date, this work has revealed that the nature, frequency, and severity of interactions and conflict at human-macaque interfaces vary broadly by context (Radhakrishna and Sinha 2011;Radhakrishna et al 2013).…”