Postural changes and behavioural thermoregulation in <i>Colobus polykomos</i>: the effect of climate and diet

Dasilva, Georgina L.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2028.1993.tb00536.x

Cited by 39 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…during the study 18.7°C, range 11-22, N = 415 nights), and the branches of tall, emergent trees seem relatively equally exposed to the elements (Smith et al 2007). However, like C. polykomos (Dasliva 1993), C. vellerosus slept sitting up, hunched over, with their limbs tucked in, perhaps to conserve heat (but this species spends most of its time during the day in a sitting position as well, Schubert 2011). The study groups also took longer to leave their sleeping sites after cooler nights, as has been noted for S. mystax and S. fuscicollis (Smith et al 2007), which may indicate that some sunbathing was necessary for the group to get active (Dasilva 1992(Dasilva , 1993.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Use of sleeping trees by ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus) demonstrates the importance of nearby food

2012

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Examination of the characteristics and locations of sleeping sites helps to document the social and ecological pressures acting on animals. We investigated sleeping tree choice for four groups of Colobus vellerosus, an arboreal folivore, on 298 nights at the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana using five non-mutually exclusive hypotheses: predation avoidance, access to food, range and resource defense, thermoregulation, and a null hypothesis of random selection. C. vellerosus utilized 31 tree species as sleeping sites and the species used differed per group depending on their availability. Groups used multiple sleeping sites and minimized their travel costs by selecting trees near feeding areas. The percentage that a food species was fed upon annually was correlated with the use of that species as a sleeping tree. Ninety percent of the sleeping trees were in a phenophase with colobus food items. Entire groups slept in non-food trees on only one night. These data strongly support the access to food hypothesis. Range and resource defense was also important to sleeping site choice. Groups slept in exclusively used areas of their home range more often than expected, but when other groups were spotted on the edge of the core area, focal groups approached the intruders, behaved aggressively, and slept close to them, seemingly to prevent an incursion into their core range. However, by sleeping high in the canopy, in large, emergent trees with dense foliage, positioning themselves away from the main trunk on medium-sized branches, and by showing low rates of site reuse, C. vellerosus also appeared to be avoiding predation in their sleeping site choices. Groups left their sleep sites later after cooler nights but did not show behavioral thermoregulation, such as huddling. This study suggests that access to food, range and resource defense, and predation avoidance were more important considerations in sleeping site selection than thermoregulation for ursine colobus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Use of sleeping trees by ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus) demonstrates the importance of nearby food

2012

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“…The logic of reducing thermoregulation costs seems to stand up independent of a "dislike of wet ground." Furthermore, behavior related to ambient temperature for thermoregulation was reported in several primate species: Lepilemur leucopus (Nash, 1998), Cercopithecus sabaeus (Harrison, 1985), Colobus polykomos (Dasilva, 1993), Macaca fuscata (Watanuki and Nakayama, 1993;Schino and Troisi, 1998), and Alouatta caraya (Bicca-Marques and CalegaroMarques, 1998); thus it appears to be a widespread pattern among primates.…”

Section: Comparison and Implications Of Ground Usementioning

confidence: 94%

Seasonal change in terrestriality of chimpanzees in relation to microclimate in the tropical forest

Takemoto

2003

American J Phys Anthropol

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Seasonal change in time spent for terrestrial behavior of chimpanzees was investigated from the viewpoint of the distribution of food and microclimate in the forest at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa. Daily and monthly data for activity budgets of three focal animals, climatic variables in the forest, and indices of fruit availability and distribution of fruit-bearing trees were estimated and analyzed. Mean activity budgets calculated by monthly means were 23.4% for terrestrial behavior (range, 2.9% in August to 42.1% in November) and 76.6% for arboreal behavior. Chimpanzees spent more time on the ground in warm or dry months. Chimpanzees also spent less time in trees in months with high fruit production (trees of diameter at breast height >/=10 cm). The daily percentage of terrestrial behavior showed a positive correlation with maximum temperature and a negative correlation with the minimum humidity of the day. Only maximum temperature of the observation day influenced time spent on the ground significantly, as analyzed by generalized linear models (GLZ), which included all variables (fruit production, distribution of fruit-bearing trees, and climatic variables). It was concluded that the reason why arboreal behavior increased in the rainy season was not owing to the vertical distribution of food, but rather in order to reduce thermoregulation costs by resting in trees during cool periods and taking advantage of the vertical structure of the microclimate in the tropical forest (i.e., higher temperatures in higher positions).

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“…A number of studies found primates to alter their activity in response to thermoregulatory needs, with a midday peak in resting thought to be a response to high ambient temperature (Stoltz and Saaymann, 1970;Bernstein, 1972Bernstein, , 1975Bernstein, , 1976. Conversely, other studies found low temperature to be associated with increased feeding activity (Iwamoto and Dunbar, 1983), huddling (Ostner, 2002), postural changes (Stelzner and Hausfater, 1986;Dasilva, 1993), and mother-infant contact (Brent et al, 2003). Recent studies also suggested that temperature plays a role in the terrestrial behavior of chimpanzees (Takemoto, 2004) and habitual cave use by chacma baboons .…”

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confidence: 91%

Thermal constraints on activity scheduling and habitat choice in baboons

Hill

2005

American J Phys Anthropol

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The importance of thermoregulation as a constraint on behavior has received comparatively little attention in relation to other ecological factors. Despite this, a number of studies suggested that high temperature may represent an important ecological constraint. This paper examines the impact of temperature on activity scheduling in a troop of chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) at De Hoop Nature Reserve, South Africa. Once the daily, seasonal, and individual effects were controlled for, the "perceived environmental temperature" (PET), which accounts for the relative contributions of solar radiation, wind speed, and humidity on shade temperature, was a significant constraint on behavior. With high PET, feeding declines, and there is an increase in grooming and particularly resting behavior. Baboons thus engage in more sedentary behaviors as temperature increases, with significantly higher levels of resting and grooming when temperature exceeds the approximate thermal neutral zone for baboons. Seeking shade is an important behavioral response to thermal stress, and PET was a significant determinant of whether an animal was in shade while engaged in either resting or grooming behavior. Furthermore, the proportion of time spent in shade increased across air temperatures that were below, within, and above the thermal neutral zone for baboons. Finally, since resting and grooming are conducted preferentially in certain habitat types, thermoregulatory considerations also impact on patterns of habitat choice and day-journey routes. This suggests that the thermal environment is an ecological variable that should be given greater consideration in future studies of primate behavior.

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Postural changes and behavioural thermoregulation in Colobus polykomos: the effect of climate and diet

Cited by 39 publications

References 20 publications

Use of sleeping trees by ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus) demonstrates the importance of nearby food

Use of sleeping trees by ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus) demonstrates the importance of nearby food

Seasonal change in terrestriality of chimpanzees in relation to microclimate in the tropical forest

Thermal constraints on activity scheduling and habitat choice in baboons

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