Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Socioecology, stress, and reproduction among female Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) in Cote d’Ivoire’s Tai National Park

Kane, Erin Elizabeth
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503076541553319

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
Socioecological models have been used to explore the relationship between female sociality and feeding ecology for nearly 40 years. Models typically distinguish between species eating ubiquitously distributed resources (e.g., leaves) in which females do not exhibit strong social bonds, engage in minimal feeding competition, and minimal territorial defense. These are contrasted with species relying on patchily distributed resources (e.g., ripe fruit) in which females do exhibit social bonds, engage in feeding competition, and defend group territories. Although these models have been critiqued and extended, these basic predictions have been widely used to develop hypotheses about the relationship between ecology and sociality among primates. Much of this research has focused on open-habitat and/or terrestrial primates, while relationships between ecology and sociality remain unexamined in many forest-dwelling and/or arboreal taxa. This is detrimental to our ability to develop unifying models of primate sociality and ecology, and problematic considering the arboreal, forest-dwelling niche filled by the earliest primates and primates in their evolutionary environment. This dissertation examines the relationship between ecological variables and diet, social behavior, reproduction, and stress in arboreal, forest-dwelling guenons. Previous research has demonstrated that Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) exemplify many predictions of socioecological; models: they are ripe fruit specialists, females are philopatric and socially bonded, and feeding competition both within and between groups is relatively high compared to closely related taxa. Here, I use socioecological data collected between July 2013-August 2015 on habituated adult female Diana monkeys living in the Tai Forest, Cote d’Ivoire, and fecal samples collected over the same period to test the hypothesis that fluctuations in food availability have significant consequences for Diana monkeys in terms of their diet, social relationships while foraging, the timing of reproduction, and metabolic stress. Diana monkeys preferentially fed at very large, relatively rare trees, supplementing this diet with invertebrates and fruits from less-preferred trees that tend to be smaller but ubiquitously distributed. Diana monkeys timed birth and lactation for periods with of relatively high fruit availability; however, there was no relationships between fluctuations in food availability, diets, and fecal glucocorticoid concentrations. While fecal glucocorticoid concentrations did fluctuate interannually, concentrations never reached pathological levels. Instead, I argue that these fluctuations allow Diana monkeys to cope with the normal strains of the life of wild primates. Diana monkeys are thus able to maintain their fruit-rich diet with minimal competition and few serious stressors. This has implications for socioecological models of primate behavior that derive primate sociality from resource distribution, with particular emphasis on competition over access to resources. Diana monkeys complicate these models because, although they eat high-value, discontinuously distributed resources, feeding competition does not drive their social behavior and there is little evidence that they experience negative consequences during periods of low food availability. This affirms the need to test not just the causes of primate behavioral ecology, but also its consequences.
W. Scott McGraw, PhD (Committee Chair)
Debra Guatelli-Steinberg, PhD (Committee Member)
Dawn Kitchen, PhD (Committee Member)
Barbara Piperata, PhD (Committee Member)
298 p.
Biology; Ecology; Physical Anthropology; Zoology
primate endocrinology, guenon, socioecology, Cercopithecus, Diana monkeys, feeding ecology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kane, E. E. (2017). Socioecology, stress, and reproduction among female Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) in Cote d’Ivoire’s Tai National Park [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503076541553319

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kane, Erin. Socioecology, stress, and reproduction among female Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) in Cote d’Ivoire’s Tai National Park. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503076541553319.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kane, Erin. "Socioecology, stress, and reproduction among female Diana monkeys (Cercopithecus diana) in Cote d’Ivoire’s Tai National Park." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503076541553319

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1503076541553319
939
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.