Fire and home range expansion: A behavioral response to burning among savanna dwelling vervet monkeys (Chlorocebusaethiops)

Abstract

The behavioral adaptations of primates to fire-modified landscapes are of considerable interest to anthropologists because fire is fundamental to life in the African savanna-the setting in which genus Homo evolved. Here we report the behavioral responses of a savanna-dwelling primate, vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops), to fire-induced ecological change. Using behavioral and spatial data to characterize ranging patterns prior to and postburn and between burn and nonburn years, we show that these primates inhabiting small, spatially bound, riverine habitats take advantage of newly burned savanna landscapes. When subjects encountered controlled fires, they did not flee but instead avoided the path of the fire seemingly unbothered by its approach. After fire, the primates' home range expanded into newly burned but previously unused areas. These results contribute to understanding the response of non-human primates to fire-modified landscapes and can shed light on the nature and scope of opportunities and constraints posed by the emergence of fire-affected landscapes in the past. Results also expose deficiencies in our knowledge of fire-related behavioral responses in the primate lineage and highlight the need for further investigation of these responses as they relate to foraging opportunities, migration, resource use, and especially fire-centric adaptations in our own genus.

Identifying and Describing Pattern and Process in the Evolution of Hominin Use of Fire

“…Another very important part of this discussion is the recognition that the use of fire can be completely unrelated to the maintenance or manufacture of fire and could even involve no real control of fire. We can easily imagine such scenarios: hominins simply cooking a piece of meat over burning vegetation resulting from natural fire or, in an even less proximate interaction with fire, hominins intentionally foraging in burnedout areas shortly after a natural fire has passed (Herzog et al 2014;Pruetz and LaDuke 2010).…”

The pyrophilic primate hypothesis

“…Exploitation of burned areas has also been observed among vervet monkeys. Our own research shows that vervets in South Africa expand their territory to encompass newly burned areas to take advantage of pyrogenic improvements . Anecdotal evidence further illuminates the relationship that nonhuman primates have with fire.…”

“…Our own research shows that vervets in South Africa expand their territory to encompass newly burned areas to take advantage of pyrogenic improvements. [67][68][69] Anecdotal evidence further illuminates the relationship that nonhuman primates have with fire. Baboons at Semliki have been observed sweeping through recently burned areas eating new shoots and the occasional cooked grasshopper; baboons in the Okavango also move quickly into burned areas, spending the majority of overall feeding time within recently burned floodplains; and Cape Peninsula baboon troops commonly exploit new shoots that emerge shortly after a fire.…”

Chimpanzee food preferences, associative learning, and the origins of cooking

“…Motivation (Dashiell, 1925), inhibitory control (Reynolds, De Wit, & Richards, 2002), causal understanding (Blaisdell, Sawa, Leising, & Waldmann, 2006), and planning (Crystal, 2013), for example, have all been claimed, to various degrees, in rats. Vervet monkeys, like chimpanzees, exploit areas burned by wildfires for ranging and feeding purposes (Jaffe & Isbell, 2009; Herzog et al, 2014; Herzog, Keefe, Parker, & Hawkes, in press); and it is likely that a wide variety of captive animals, primate and non-primate alike, would prefer cooked to uncooked foods, due to considerations from optimal foraging theory (Charnov, 1976; Schoener, 1971; Wrangham, 2009). Some of the purported psychological prerequisites for cooking may have been around a long time, perhaps tens of millions of years, something that cannot be recognized without applying a more broadly comparative approach (i.e., extending the discussion beyond chimpanzees or apes generally).…”