Locomotor Ecology of Propithecus verreauxi in Kirindy Mitea National Park

Furnell, Simon; Blanchard, Mary L.; Crompton, Robin H.; Sellers, William I.

doi:10.1159/000377677

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…However, we note that locomotor differences potentially affected travel and rest data. As a vertical clinger and leaper, Propithecus moves with shorter, high‐velocity leaps interspersed with rest (Furnell et al, 2015); the quadrupedal Eulemur is more continuously “on the move” when traveling. Instantaneous sampling may therefore provide a misleading comparison.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity budget and seasonal activity shifts in sympatric lemurs: Increased lean season effort in a cathemeral frugivore contrasts with energy conservation in a diurnal folivore

Rahalinarivo,

Rakotomanana,

Randrianasy

et al. 2023

American J Primatol

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One of the most fundamental aspects of a species’ behavioral strategy is its activity budget; for primates this generally involves the allocation of available time among resting, feeding, traveling, and social behavior. Comparisons between species, populations, or individuals can reveal divergences in adaptive strategies and current stressors, and reflect responses to such diverse pressures as predation, thermoregulation, nutrition, and social needs. Further, variation across seasons is an important part of behavioral strategies to survive food scarcity; this can involve increasing or decreasing effort. We documented activity over the 24‐h cycle for the cathemeral, frugivorous Eulemur fulvus and the diurnal, folivorous Propithecus diadema across 13–18 months at Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar. Their activity budgets were dominated by resting (E. fulvus: 74.1%; P. diadema: 85.2%), followed by feeding (15.8%, 12.4%), traveling (9.31%, 1.74%) and social activities (0.76%, 0.70%), respectively. The lower feeding and higher resting in P. diadema likely reflect slower gastrointestinal transit and higher reliance on microbial fermentation to extract energy from fibrous food. The two species showed opposite lean season strategies. E. fulvus increased activity, with more feeding but less travel time, consistent with a shift to less‐profitable fruits, and some leaves and flowers, while increasing feeding effort to compensate (“energy maximizing”). P. diadema showed less variation across months, but the lean season still evoked reduced effort across the board (feeding, travel, and social behavior), consistent with a “time minimizing” strategy prioritizing energy conservation and microbe‐assisted digestion. Understanding these divergent shifts is key to understanding natural behavior and the extent of behavioral flexibility under stressful conditions. Finally, the complex patterns of fruit availability (intra‐ and interannually) and the species’ behavioral responses across months underscore the need to move beyond simplistic “lean/abundant season” and “fruit/leaf” dichotomies in understanding underlying energetic strategies, and species’ vulnerability to habitat change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity budget and seasonal activity shifts in sympatric lemurs: Increased lean season effort in a cathemeral frugivore contrasts with energy conservation in a diurnal folivore

Rahalinarivo,

Rakotomanana,

Randrianasy

et al. 2023

American J Primatol

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“…Indirect evidence for this explanation comes from VCL lemurs. Although indriids (especially Propithecus ) are vertical clingers and leapers, larger‐bodied species like Indri indri are also skilled hangers, engaging in bimanual and especially bipedal suspension, using highly abducted hip postures in a variety of activities (Furnell, ). Indeed, if we separate Indri indri from the other VCLs of this study (results not shown here) we observe that their femoral head diameters are higher than the other VCL lemurs and close to Varecia .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The locomotion of Babakotia radofilai inferred from epiphyseal and diaphyseal morphology of the humerus and femur

Marchi

Ruff

Capobianco

et al. 2016

Journal of Morphology

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Palaeopropithecids, or "sloth lemurs," are a diverse clade of large-bodied Malagasy subfossil primates characterized by their inferred suspensory positional behavior. The most recently discovered genus of the palaeopropithecids is Babakotia, and it has been described as more arboreal than Mesopropithecus, but less than Palaeopropithecus. In this article, the within-bone and between-bones articular and cross-sectional diaphyseal proportions of the humerus and femur of Babakotia were compared to extant lemurs, Mesopropithecus and Palaeopropithecus in order to further understand its arboreal adaptations. Additionally, a sample of apes and sloths (Choloepus and Bradypus) are included as functional outgroups composed of suspensory adapted primates and non-primates. Results show that Babakotia and Mesopropithecus both have high humeral/femoral shaft strength proportions, similar to extant great apes and sloths and indicative of forelimb suspensory behavior, with Babakotia more extreme in this regard. All three subfossil taxa have relatively large femoral heads, also associated with suspension in modern taxa. However, Babakotia and Mesopropithecus (but not Palaeopropithecus) have relatively small femoral head surface area to shaft strength proportions suggesting that hind-limb positioning in these taxa during climbing and other behaviors was different than in extant great apes, involving less mobility. Knee and humeral articular dimensions relative to shaft strengths are small in Babakotia and Mesopropithecus, similar to those found in modern sloths and divergent from those in extant great apes and lemurs, suggesting more sloth-like use of these joints during locomotion. Mesopropithecus and Babakotia are more similar to Choloepus in humerofemoral head and length proportions while Palaeopropithecus is more similar to Bradypus. These results provide further evidence of the suspensory adaptations of Babakotia and further highlight similarities to both extant suspensory primates and non-primate slow arboreal climbers and hangers. J. Morphol. 277:1199-1218, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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“…Verreaux's sifaka have adapted to periods of seasonal resource depression (Norscia et al, 2006), as well as occasional supra‐annual depression events (cyclones: Lewis & Bannar‐Martin, 2012, droughts: Lawler et al, 2009; Veilleux & Lewis, unpublished data, fires: Axel, 2018) by decreasing active period, activity level, and daily path length during the dry season (Erkert & Kappeler, 2004; Furnell et al, 2015; Norscia et al, 2006; Rudolph et al, 2019). Accounts of ranging patterns at the home range scale are not as consistent, however, even in the same population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consistency in Verreaux's sifaka home range and core area size despite seasonal variation in resource availability as assessed by Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)

Axel,

Harshbarger,

Lewis

et al. 2024

American J Primatol

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Primates are adept at dealing with fluctuating availability of resources and display a range of responses to minimize the effects of food scarcity. An important component of primate conservation is to understand how primates adapt their foraging and ranging patterns in response to fluctuating food resources. Animals optimize resource acquisition within the home range through the selection of resource‐bearing patches and choose between contrasting foraging strategies (resource‐maximizing vs. area‐minimizing). Our study aimed to characterize the foraging strategy of a folivorous primate, Verreaux's sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi), by evaluating whether group home range size varied between peak and lean leaf seasons within a seasonally dry tropical forest in Madagascar. We hypothesized that Verreaux's sifaka used the resource maximization strategy to select high‐value resource patches so that during periods of resource depression, the home range area did not significantly change in size. We characterized resource availability (i.e., primary productivity) by season at Kirindy Mitea National Park using remotely‐sensed Enhanced Vegetation Index data. We calculated group home ranges using 10 years of focal animal sampling data collected on eight groups using both 95% and 50% kernel density estimation. We used area accumulation curves to ensure each group had an adequate number of locations to reach seasonal home range asymptotes. Neither 95% home ranges nor 50% core areas differed across peak and lean leaf resource seasons, supporting the hypothesis that Verreaux's sifaka use a resource maximization strategy. With a better understanding of animal space use strategies, managers can model anticipated changes under environmental and/or anthropogenic resource depression scenarios. These findings demonstrate the value of long‐term data for characterizing and understanding foraging and ranging patterns. We also illustrate the benefits of using satellite data for characterizing food resources for folivorous primates.

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Locomotor Ecology of Propithecus verreauxi in Kirindy Mitea National Park

Cited by 5 publications

References 34 publications

Activity budget and seasonal activity shifts in sympatric lemurs: Increased lean season effort in a cathemeral frugivore contrasts with energy conservation in a diurnal folivore

Activity budget and seasonal activity shifts in sympatric lemurs: Increased lean season effort in a cathemeral frugivore contrasts with energy conservation in a diurnal folivore

The locomotion of Babakotia radofilai inferred from epiphyseal and diaphyseal morphology of the humerus and femur

Consistency in Verreaux's sifaka home range and core area size despite seasonal variation in resource availability as assessed by Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)

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