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.
Highlights
How an animal moves through its environment directly impacts its survival, reproduction, and biological fitness
To provide a fuller analysis of the ecological determinants of movement at a local scale, and to complement our continental scale analyse, we investigated the daily movements of two troops of yellow baboons, Papio cynocephalus, inhabiting the primate-rich, seasonal, and predominantly woodland habitat of the Issa Valley in Ugalla, western Tanzania
In keeping with previous comparative studies (e.g. [2932,62]), we investigated the effect of the following climate variables on mean annual Day Path Length (DPL): mean annual temperature (Tann), mean annual rainfall (Pann), variation in monthly temperature (TmoSD), variation in monthly rainfall (PmoSD), the number of months per year with less than 100 mm of rainfall (P < 100), and the primary productivity index (PPI: the number of months in the year where rainfall was more than twice the average annual temperature)
Summary
How an animal moves through its environment directly impacts its survival, reproduction, and 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. We investigate the ecological determinants of baboon (Papio spp.) troop DPL and movements at local and continental scales. A simple, but revealing measure of an animal’s space use is the distance it moves within a 24-hour period. This distance is described as the Day Path Length (DPL). DPLs provide the basis of analyses of mammalian day range [3], and some of the most comprehensive studies of what determines how far animals travel have been undertaken on primates [4]. Increasing primate group sizes results in longer DPLs [20] since
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