Instituto de Biociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Escola de Ciências, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Am J Primatol. 2018 Jun;80(6):e22865. doi: 10.1002/ajp.22865. Epub 2018 May 2.
Wild primates that live in urban areas face extreme threats that are less frequent in nonurban fragments, such as the presence of dangerous matrix elements (e.g., roads, power lines, buildings, and a high density of domestic dogs near food patches), that could influence their movements, feeding behavior, and survival. However, the scarcity of studies addressing this issue hinders our understanding of the behavioral adjustments that favor the survival of primates in urban areas. For 12 months, we studied a six-individual group of brown howlers (Alouatta guariba clamitans) in an urban fragment to determine (i) their diet richness and its relationships with food availability, (ii) their daily path length (DPL) and the matrix elements used during movement, and (iii) the main ecological drivers of the DPL. Sampling effort totaled 72 days, 787 hr, and 3,224 instantaneous scans. We found that the diet of brown howlers contained 35 plant species (including seven cultivated crops) belonging to 33 genera and 21 families. The consumption of fruits and young leaves was directly related to their temporal availability. The average DPL (446 m) was smaller than that reported for groups of howlers inhabiting large nonurban fragments. To move between food patches, animals used three main matrix elements: trees, power lines, and roofs. The number of plant species used during the day was the main driver of DPL. Our findings highlighted that the generalist-opportunistic diet of brown howlers and their ability to move across the anthropogenic matrix using artificial elements such as power lines, roofs, and wildlife crossings represent a remarkable part of their behavioral repertory in Lami. However, there are potential costs associated with these strategies, namely, electrocution and predation by domestic dogs. Thus, it is urgent to further investigate how these behaviors could affect the long-term survival of these animals.
生活在城市地区的野生灵长类动物面临着非城市片段中较少出现的极端威胁，例如存在危险的基质元素（例如道路、电线、建筑物以及食物斑块附近的家养狗密度高），这些元素可能会影响它们的运动、觅食行为和生存。然而，缺乏研究这个问题的研究阻碍了我们对有利于灵长类动物在城市地区生存的行为调整的理解。在 12 个月的时间里，我们研究了一个由六只棕色吼猴（Alouatta guariba clamitans）组成的城市片段中的群体，以确定（i）它们的饮食丰富度及其与食物可获得性的关系，（ii）它们的日路径长度（DPL）和运动过程中使用的基质元素，以及（iii）DPL 的主要生态驱动因素。采样工作共进行了 72 天、787 小时和 3224 次瞬时扫描。我们发现，棕色吼猴的饮食包含 35 种植物物种（包括七种栽培作物），属于 33 个属和 21 个科。果实和嫩叶的消耗与它们的时间可用性直接相关。平均 DPL（446m）小于栖息在大型非城市片段中的吼猴群报告的 DPL。为了在食物斑块之间移动，动物使用了三种主要的基质元素：树木、电线和屋顶。白天使用的植物物种数量是 DPL 的主要驱动因素。我们的研究结果强调，棕色吼猴的机会主义一般食性以及它们使用电线、屋顶和野生动物通道等人工元素穿越人为基质的能力，代表了它们在拉米行为 repertory 中的重要部分。然而，这些策略存在潜在的成本，即电击和被家养狗捕食。因此，迫切需要进一步研究这些行为如何影响这些动物的长期生存。
