Watts D P
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 1991;56(1):1-16. doi: 10.1159/000156521.
Patterns of home range use by a mountain gorilla group are examined here in relation to variation in food abundance and quality, diet quality and rainfall, to interactions between different social units and to the distribution of hazards (poaching risk). Variation in habitat quality influenced both long-term area occupation densities and shorter-term movement parameters (day journey length and the distance moved between consecutive feeding sites). Observed home range use patterns increased the gorillas' foraging efficiency. Rainfall influenced the evenness of home range use slightly, but this was the only seasonal variability. Interactions with other gorillas and poaching risk had proximate effects superimposed on the fundamental influence of food distribution patterns. Data from a larger sample of groups show a positive influence of group size on day journey length, but this was apparent only at very small and relatively large group sizes. The absolute distance travelled per day tends to be short even for large groups. The data support arguments that the costs of social foraging are low for mountain gorillas.
本文研究了山地大猩猩群体的活动范围使用模式,涉及食物丰度和质量的变化、饮食质量和降雨量、不同社会单元之间的相互作用以及危险分布(偷猎风险)。栖息地质量的变化影响了长期区域占用密度和短期移动参数(日间行程长度以及连续觅食地点之间移动的距离)。观察到的活动范围使用模式提高了大猩猩的觅食效率。降雨对活动范围使用的均匀性有轻微影响,但这是唯一的季节变化。与其他大猩猩的相互作用和偷猎风险在食物分布模式的基本影响之上产生了直接影响。来自更多群体样本的数据显示群体大小对日间行程长度有积极影响,但这仅在非常小和相对较大的群体规模时才明显。即使对于大群体,每天行进的绝对距离往往也很短。这些数据支持了这样的观点,即山地大猩猩的社会觅食成本较低。