Asensio Norberto, Schaffner Colleen M, Aureli Filippo
Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, 999 Phutthamonthon, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.
Primates. 2012 Apr;53(2):147-56. doi: 10.1007/s10329-011-0288-9. Epub 2011 Nov 18.
Core areas are highly used parts of the home range on which the survival of solitary or group-living animals depends. We investigated the home range and core area size and area fidelity of a spider monkey community in a tropical dry forest over a 4-year period. Home ranges overlapped extensively across years, subgroup sizes, and seasons. In contrast, spider monkeys used core areas that varied in size and location across the study years, subgroup sizes, and seasons. These shifts in core areas suggest that the understanding of core areas, and thus the spatial requirements, of a species in a particular habitat may be limited if based on short-term studies. In this respect, our findings emphasize the importance of long-term studies of the spatial ecology of any species in a particular habitat. Our study also shows that the yearly home range basically includes all the core areas from different years, seasons, and subgroup sizes (i.e., the super-core area). This is conceptually important for territorial species, such as spider monkeys, which defend a stable home range as it contains not only the current, but also the future core areas.
核心区域是动物活动范围内使用频率很高的部分，独居或群居动物的生存依赖于此。我们在4年时间里，对热带干旱森林中一个蜘蛛猴群落的活动范围、核心区域大小以及区域忠诚度进行了调查。不同年份、亚群规模和季节的活动范围广泛重叠。相比之下，蜘蛛猴使用的核心区域在研究年份、亚群规模和季节中，其大小和位置各不相同。核心区域的这些变化表明，如果基于短期研究，对于特定栖息地中一个物种的核心区域以及空间需求的理解可能是有限的。在这方面，我们的研究结果强调了对特定栖息地中任何物种进行空间生态学长期研究的重要性。我们的研究还表明，年度活动范围基本上包括了来自不同年份、季节和亚群规模的所有核心区域（即超级核心区域）。这对于像蜘蛛猴这样的领地性物种在概念上很重要，因为它们会保卫一个稳定的活动范围，因为这个范围不仅包含当前的，还包含未来的核心区域。
