Abstract
Folivorous primates are typically considered time minimizers because the constraints of their unique digestive systems require them to spend a large portion of their activity budgets resting. However, inter- and intraspecific behavioral variation in their activity budgets may be influenced by local geographic and climatic conditions and evolutionary history. We compiled 48 studies representing ten genera, 31 species, and 50 populations to assess geographic (elevation, latitude), climatic (precipitation, temperature), and phylogenetic correlates of colobine activity budgets. Time spent resting negatively correlated with time spent feeding, moving, and socializing. Except for time spent socializing, activity budgets were independent of phylogeny, with more time spent feeding and less time resting in higher-elevation habitats and at lower temperatures. Among the four most common genera in our sample, only in Rhinopithecus did time spent feeding increase with higher elevations (range, 950–3950 m above mean sea level) and lower temperatures (range, 0.9–25 ℃). Only in Trachypithecus did time spent resting decrease with lower temperatures (range, 19–25 ℃). Our findings suggest that there are no apparent effects of geographic or climatic gradients on colobine activity budgets except for Rhinopithecus and Trachypithecus, whose activities are biased in favor of energy maximization rather than time minimization. Compared with other colobines, the ability of Rhinopithecus to adapt their activity budget at high elevations may make them less vulnerable to climate change, while the greater sensitivity of Trachypithecus to heat may make them more vulnerable to climate change.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the various sources of funding enabling us to write this manuscript, including a Teaching Assistantship from the Department of Integrative Biology (to JBK) and a Vilas Research Professorship (to KBS). We are grateful to Anthony Ives, Lucas Nell, and Joseph Phillips for their helpful statistical advice, and to Ilianna Anise, AJ Hardie, John Orrock, Geng Ying, two peer reviewers from a UW-Madison writing class (Anthro 906), and the editor and two anonymous reviewers of this journal for providing constructive comments on previous versions of this manuscript. We also thank William Karasov, Richard McFarland, John Orrock, and Warren Porter for helpful discussions over the years, and Liang-Wei Cui for providing unpublished data used in this study.
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Kraus, J.B., Strier, K.B. Geographic, climatic, and phylogenetic drivers of variation in colobine activity budgets. Primates 63, 647–658 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01015-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01015-y