Effects of Environmental Stress on Primate Populations

Abstract

Environmental stress on primate populations can take many forms. Abiotic factors, such as temperature and precipitation, may directly influence the behavior of primates owing to physiological demands of thermoregulation or through indirect influences on vegetation that primates rely on for food. These effects can also scale up to the macro scale, impacting primate distributions and evolution. Primates also encounter stress during interactions within and between species (i.e., biotic interactions). For example, selective pressure from male-perpetrated infanticide can drive the development of female counterstrategies and can impact life-history traits. Predation on primates can modify group size, ranging behavior, and habitat use. Finally, humans have influenced primate populations for millennia. More recently, hunting, habitat disturbance, disease, and climate change have increased in frequency and severity with detrimental impacts on primate populations worldwide. These effects and recent evidence from camera traps emphasize the importance of maintaining protected areas for conserving primate populations.