The effect of social and ecological factors on the time budget of wild vervet monkeys

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Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
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Title
The effect of social and ecological factors on the time budget of wild vervet monkeys
Journal
Ethology
Author(s)
Canteloup Charlotte, Borgeaud Christèle, Wubs Matthias, van de Waal Erica
ISSN
0179-1613
1439-0310
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/2019
Editor
Ebensperger Luis
Volume
125
Number
12
Pages
902-913
Language
english
Abstract
Animals often have a limited time to perform different fitness-enhancing activities,
such as the trade-off between socializing versus foraging in group-living species.
Many previous studies have focused on how ecological and social factors influence
activity budget at the individual or group level in various species. However, few primate
studies have focused on multiple study groups living within a similar habitat.
Here, we analyse group, season and sex effects on the individual activity budget
of wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) living in four groups with overlapping
home ranges. Generally, our findings support previous studies on primates.
Our results indicate that intragroup competition may force larger groups to spend
more time feeding and less time resting. We also found that seasonal variation, and
therefore food availability, has a strong influence on the monkeys’ activity budget.
Females, which are the philopatric sex in vervet monkeys, spent more time socializing
while, in general, males spent more time resting. However, we did not find any
difference on the time spent socializing between groups. Since there is evidence that
not only time constraints and habitat quality but also group size influence individual
behaviours and ultimately group living, we advise that future studies should focus
on multiple groups of the same species living in the same habitat in order to better
understand how all these variables are interlinked.
Keywords
Animal Science and Zoology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Web of science
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / 31003A_159587
Swiss National Science Foundation / PP00P3_170624
Create date
21/01/2020 15:16
Last modification date
22/01/2020 6:26
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