Abstract
To understand how animals select resources we need to analyze selection at different spatial levels or scales in the habitat. We investigated which physical characteristics of trees (dimensions and structure, e.g., height, trunk diameter, number of branches) determined nesting selection by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) on two different spatial scales: individual nesting trees and nesting sites. We also examined whether individual tree selection explained the landscape pattern of nesting site selection. We compared the physical characteristics of actual (N = 132) and potential (N = 242) nesting trees in nesting sites (in 15 plots of 25 m × 25 m) and of all trees in actual and potential nesting sites (N = 763 in 30 plots of 25 m × 25 m). We collected data in May and June 2003 in Issa, a dry and open savanna habitat in Tanzania. Chimpanzees selected both the site they used for nesting in the landscape and the trees they used to build nests within a nesting site, demonstrating two levels of spatial selection in nesting. Site selection was stronger than individual tree selection. Tree height was the most important variable for both nesting site and tree selection in our study, suggesting that chimpanzees selected both safe sites and secure trees for sleeping.
Highlights
Sleep is one of the vital behaviors in animals and the one that involves the highest risk of predation, making the decision of where to sleep essential for survival (Fruth et al 2018; Lima et al 2005; Mainwaring et al 2014; Reinhardt 2020)
The model considered best based on Bayesian model probability included mean log tree height, mean number of 5–10 cm diameter branches, and mean log lowest branch height (Table IV; see ESM Tables SIII and SIV for more details of the process of model selection)
All trees in potential nesting sites Number of 5–10 cm diameter branches All trees in nesting sites
Summary
Sleep is one of the vital behaviors in animals and the one that involves the highest risk of predation, making the decision of where to sleep essential for survival (Fruth et al 2018; Lima et al 2005; Mainwaring et al 2014; Reinhardt 2020). Strepsirrhines use tree branches, tree holes, tangles of vegetation, and nests constructed by other species or by themselves (Eppley et al 2016; Gursky 2002; Kappeler 1998; Terrien et al 2011). Old World and New World monkeys use tree branches, tree holes, tree forks, vegetation-covered tree trunks, dense tangles of vegetation, cliff ledges, or caves (Anderson 1984; Hamilton 1982). Small apes use bare tree branches and parasitic plants on branches to sleep (Fan and Jiang 2008). Complex structures of vegetation (called nests) for sleeping, mostly in trees, but chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) build terrestrial nests and gorillas can sleep on the bare ground (Fruth and Hohmann 1996; Fruth et al 2018)
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