The ecological determinants of baboon troop movements at local and continental scales

Abstract

BackgroundHow an animal moves through its environment directly impacts its survival, reproduction, and thus biological fitness. A basic measure describing how an individual (or group) travels through its environment is Day Path Length (DPL), i.e., the distance travelled in a 24-hour period. Here, we investigate the ecological determinants of baboon (Papio spp.) troop DPL and movements at local and continental scales.ResultsAt the continental scale we explore the ecological determinants of annual mean DPL for 47 baboon troops across 23 different populations, updating a classic study by Dunbar (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31: 35-49, 1992). We find that variation in baboon DPLs is predicted by ecological dissimilarity across the genus range. Troops that experience higher average monthly rainfall and anthropogenic influences have significantly shorter DPL, whilst troops that live in areas with higher average annual temperatures have significantly longer DPL. We then explore DPLs and movement characteristics (the speed and distribution of turning angles) for yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) at a local scale, in the Issa Valley of western Tanzania. We show that our continental-scale model is a good predictor of DPL in Issa baboons, and that troops move significantly slower, and over shorter distances, on warmer days. We do not find any effect of season or the abundance of fruit resources on the movement characteristics or DPL of Issa baboons, but find that baboons moved less during periods of high fruit availability.ConclusionOverall, this study emphasises the ability of baboons to adapt their ranging behaviour to a range of ecological conditions and highlights how investigations of movement patterns at different spatial scales can provide a more thorough understanding of the ecological determinants of movement.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-015-0040-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Chimpanzee ranging responses to fruit availability in a high‐elevation environment

“…Excluding topographic differences in mean monthly DPL measurements underestimated travel effort by 3–6% in Nyungwe. Cross‐site and cross‐species comparisons in DPL and home range size are used for numerous purposes, for example, comparisons of habitat quality (Palminteri & Peres, 2012; Yamagiwa & Basabose, 2006; Zhang et al, 2014) and territory defendability (Dunbar, 1992; Mitani & Rodman, 1979) and to test ecological and social determinants of movement behavior (Dunbar, 1992; C. Johnson et al, 2015; Wrangham et al, 1993) and even hypotheses on locomotor ecology and evolution (Pontzer, 2017a, 2017b). Ignoring topographic differences will result in the underestimation of path lengths and home ranges in rugged sites and may lead to misleading results.…”

“…Variation in primate travel effort is most commonly analyzed using daily path length (DPL, also referred to as daily travel distance or day journey length) and monthly home range size (e.g., Doran, 1997; Grueter et al, 2013; Grueter, Robbins et al, 2018; C. Johnson, Piel, Forman, Stewart, & King, 2015; Li, Chen, Ji, & Ren, 2000; Shaffer, 2013; Wrangham, Gittleman, & Chapman, 1993). DPL is calculated by summing the straight‐line distances between consecutive x and y location coordinates.…”

Food abundance and weather influence habitat‐specific ranging patterns in forest‐ and savanna mosaic‐dwelling red‐tailed monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius)

“…Abiotic factors influence ranging (Baoping, Ming, Yongcheng, & Fuwen, ; Hill & Dunbar, ) as individuals thermoregulate to avoid overheating in hot temperatures and energy loss from cold during rainfall (Stelzner & Hausfater, ). Across habitats, high temperatures are associated with reduced travel speeds and duration (yellow baboons, P. cynocephalus , Stelzner, ; Johnson, Piel, Forman, Stewart, & King, ; white‐faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus , Campos & Fedigan, ) and determine activity schedules (yellow baboons, Hill, ; Hill, ; chimpanzees, Kosheleff & Anderson, ). DTD relates negatively to rainfall in both forests (red colobus, Piliocolobus tephrosceles , Isbell, ; gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei , Ganas & Robbins, ; proboscis monkeys, Nasalis larvatus , Matsuda, Tuuga, & Higashi, ; siamangs, Hylobates syndactylus , and lar gibbons, H. lar , Raemaekers, ) and more heterogeneous mosaic habitats (baboons, Papio spp., Johnson et al, ).…”

Assessment of the abundance of Anubis baboons (Papio anubis) and conflict with humans in Trigni Forest of Gida Ayana District, Western Ethiopia

“…AB are ecologically flexible based on the factors influencing in that they use wide variety of foods and can live in a variety of habitats (Codron et al, 2006). The main reason why they are able to adapt to these numerous habitats could be their flexibility in foraging strategies and ability to extract food and nutrients from almost all strata of the environment (Strum, 1991;Johnson et al, 2015). AB are highly social animals; with a complex multi-male, multi-female social structure.…”

“…Females mostly stay in troops throughout their life while males sometimes move from the groups and search for food individually. Within the troop, there is social structure with according to their age; the dominant adult males lead the troop (Johnson et al, 2015). Reproduction in AB is linked with the social structure of this species.…”