Thermoenergetic challenges and daytime behavioural patterns of a wild cathemeral mammal

Perea-Rodríguez, Juan Pablo; Corley, Margaret; Iglesia, Horacio de la; Fernández-Duque, Eduardo

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.12.008

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Behavioral thermoregulation can also be used by primates and other mammals during cold and dry periods, with huddling and other resting postures regularly used to save energy [23,54]. Extreme temperatures, however, reduce the activity levels of mammals [55], also evident from the high variability in activity levels in Javan slow loris at around 35 • C. Humidity also influenced the activity levels of Javan slow lorises, with peaks of activity when relative humidity was around 100%. This was predicted as high humidity corresponds to periods of high availability of fruit and flying insects [26].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Moon Luminosity, Seasonality, Sex and Weather Conditions on the Activity Levels of the Nocturnal Javan Slow Loris

et al. 2022

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The activity patterns of mammals depend on environmental changes (e.g., moon luminosity, food availability, weather) and endogenous rhythms. Behavioral observations are traditionally used to estimate the activity patterns of animals, but low visibility and the cryptic nature of some species entail that, in certain conditions, the animal is visible only for around 60% of the time. Recent advances in technology allow automatic data collection on the activity levels of animals. We used five years of data collected via accelerometers to understand how moon luminosity, seasonality, sex, and weather conditions influence the activity levels of the nocturnal and cryptic Javan slow loris. We collected 9589 h on six females and 7354 h on six males. Via Generalized Additive Mixed Models, we found that lorises are lunarphobic; they reduce activity levels during cold nights, they have higher activity levels when the relative humidity is close to 100%, and they have high peaks of activity between December and February and between June and August. The activity levels are thus influenced by avoidance of predators, food availability, consumption of insects and nectar, physiological, and behavioral adaptations to cold temperatures and energy requirements during reproductive stages. We highlight the importance of using bio-loggers for cryptic animals as with behavioral observations only, and the observer might underestimate active behaviors and overestimate inactivity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Moon Luminosity, Seasonality, Sex and Weather Conditions on the Activity Levels of the Nocturnal Javan Slow Loris

et al. 2022

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“…Aotus are socially monogamous platyrrhines that live in small groups consisting of an adult pair of monkeys with their dependent young (Fernandez‐Duque, 2007; Wright, 1985). Some species of Aotus ( Aotus azarae , Aotus infulatus , Aotus trivirgatus ) are cathemeral (Engqvist & Richard, 1991; Fernandez‐Duque & Erkert, 2006; Santini et al, 2015; Wright, 1989) and their partial diurnal activity may be related to both predation risk and thermoenergetic constraints (Perea‐Rodríguez et al, 2022; Savagian & Fernandez‐Duque, 2017). Owl monkeys appear to be somewhat reliant upon visual cues given that they adjust their activity levels with available moonlight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of auditory, olfactory, and visual cues for insect foraging in owl monkeys (Aotus nancymaae)

Breitenbach,

Ambros,

Risko

et al. 2023

American J Primatol

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Nocturnal mammals have unique sensory adaptations to facilitate foraging at night. Owl monkeys (Aotus spp.) are pair‐living nocturnal platyrrhines adept at capturing insect prey under low‐light conditions. Owl monkeys use acoustic and chemical cues in intraspecific communication and use olfaction to detect fruit as they forage. We conducted an experiment to determine which cues (auditory, olfactory, and visual) Aotus nancymaae rely upon when foraging for insects. We scored the behavior of 23 captive owl monkeys during a series of trials in which monkeys were provided sensory boxes with insect cues either present (experimental box) or absent (control box). Each cue was tested alone and in combination with all other cues (multimodal cues). We used generalized linear mixed models to determine which cues elicited the greatest behavioral response. Owl monkeys approached and spent more time near experimental boxes than control boxes. Male owl monkeys were quicker than their female partners to approach the sensory boxes, suggesting that males may be less neophobic than females. The owl monkeys exhibited behaviors associated with olfaction and foraging (e.g., sneezing, trilling) during trials with multimodal cues and when only olfactory cues were present. When only visual or auditory cues were present, owl monkeys exhibited fewer foraging‐related behaviors. After approaching a sensory box, however, they often touched boxes containing visual cues. A. nancymaae may rely on olfactory cues at night to detect a food source from several meters away and then rely more on visual cues once they are closer to the food source. Their use of sensory cues during insect foraging differs from nocturnal strepsirrhines, possibly reflecting physiological constraints associated with phylogeny, given that owl monkeys evolved nocturnality secondarily from a more recent diurnal ancestor.

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“…Species that are able to operate across all diel phases include those animals with multi-modal rhythms of activity (including poly-phasic and ultradian rhythms) ( Halle, 2006 ), and cathemeral species which show significant activity during both the light and dark phases of the 24-hour cycle ( Tattersall, 1987 ). In such species, the temporal distribution of activity is often flexible, being governed by complex interactions that occur between the animals’ endogenous rhythms, ecological entrainment mechanisms, and various environmental or ecological factors such as ambient temperature, light, food availability, interspecific competition, and predation risk ( Donati & Borgognini-Tarli, 2006 ; Grignolio et al, 2018 ; Perea-Rodríguez et al, 2022 ). It is considered that cathemerality in particular arises as a consequence of an animal’s true endogenous rhythm being ‘masked’ by these external factors ( Curtis & Rasmussen, 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is considered that cathemerality in particular arises as a consequence of an animal’s true endogenous rhythm being ‘masked’ by these external factors ( Curtis & Rasmussen, 2006 ). Cathemerality can encompass regular activity spanning the 24-hour cycle year-round, or can occur on a more cyclic basis, shifting from nocturnality to diurnality between different days or seasons ( Hofmann et al, 2016 ; Perea-Rodríguez et al, 2022 ; Van der Vinne et al, 2014 ). However, details of the complex biotic and abiotic factors that govern such flexible activity patterns remain poorly understood ( Halle, 2000 ; Kappeler & Erkert, 2003 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The behaviour and activity budgets of two sympatric sloths; Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni

Cliffe

Haupt

Kennedy³

et al. 2023

PeerJ

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It is usually beneficial for species to restrict activity to a particular phase of the 24-hour cycle as this enables the development of morphological and behavioural adaptations to enhance survival under specific biotic and abiotic conditions. Sloth activity patterns are thought to be strongly related to the environmental conditions due to the metabolic consequences of having a low and highly variable core body temperature. Understanding the drivers of sloth activity and their ability to withstand environmental fluctuations is of growing importance for the development of effective conservation measures, particularly when we consider the vulnerability of tropical ecosystems to climate change and the escalating impacts of anthropogenic activities in South and Central America. Unfortunately, the cryptic nature of sloths makes long term observational research difficult and so there is very little existing literature examining the behavioural ecology of wild sloths. Here, we used micro data loggers to continuously record, for the first time, the behaviour of both Bradypus and Choloepus sloths over periods of days to weeks. We investigate how fluctuations in the environmental conditions affect the activity of sloths inhabiting a lowland rainforest on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and examined how this might relate to their low power lifestyle. Both Bradypus and Choloepus sloths were found to be cathemeral in their activity, with high levels of between-individual and within-individual variation in the amounts of time spent active, and in the temporal distribution of activity over the 24-hour cycle. Daily temperature did not affect activity, although Bradypus sloths were found to show increased nocturnal activity on colder nights, and on nights following colder days. Our results demonstrate a distinct lack of synchronicity within the same population, and we suggest that this pattern provides sloths with the flexibility to exploit favourable environmental conditions whilst reducing the threat of predation.

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Thermoenergetic challenges and daytime behavioural patterns of a wild cathemeral mammal

Cited by 7 publications

References 58 publications

Influence of Moon Luminosity, Seasonality, Sex and Weather Conditions on the Activity Levels of the Nocturnal Javan Slow Loris

Influence of Moon Luminosity, Seasonality, Sex and Weather Conditions on the Activity Levels of the Nocturnal Javan Slow Loris

The importance of auditory, olfactory, and visual cues for insect foraging in owl monkeys (Aotus nancymaae)

The behaviour and activity budgets of two sympatric sloths; Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni

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