In the Gashaka Gumti National Park
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DOCTORAL THESIS Energetics and life-history of olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) in the Gashaka Gumti National Park Lodge, Emily Award date: 2012 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 06. Oct. 2021 Energetics and life-history of olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) in the Gashaka Gumti National Park by Emily Lodge, MBiolSci A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Life Sciences University of Roehampton 2012 i ABSTRACT This thesis uses a number of novel methods to investigate how various measures of individual energetic status and condition vary within and between two troops of olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis) in Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria. One troop is entirely wild-feeding whilst the other supplements its diet with crop-raiding, behaviour previously suggested to provide energetic benefits. Observations of activity budgets and feeding behaviour were combined with nutritional analyses of food samples to estimate energetic intake and expenditure amongst adult female baboons. Glucocorticoid (stress hormone), progesterone (reproductive hormone) and urinary C- peptide (an indicator of energetic status) levels of the same animals were assessed via analyses of faecal and urine samples. These data were used to investigate the effect of food-enhancement, between troops; the effect of reproductive state and rank, within troops; and the effect of variation in weather conditions and food availability across the nine month study period. Benefits of crop-raiding behaviour included elevated resting time, energy intake rates and reproductive success, and reduced feeding time and glucocorticoid levels in the crop-raiding troop as compared to the wild-feeding troop. Food-enhancement also appears to have buffered the crop-raiding troop’s energetic status and stress levels against the effects of environmental stressors. Within troops, energy intake and expenditure rates varied between individuals in different reproductive states but not different ranks and neither factor significantly affected C-peptide or glucocorticoid levels. Rainfall had a considerable but variable influence on the baboons, being correlated with both positive and negative aspects of their behaviour and condition. Gashaka represents an extreme habitat for baboons, with high rainfall creating both a food and disease rich environment. The results of this study suggest that while low to moderate rainfall brings benefits, via increased food availability, heavy rainfall exerts a negative influence on the Gashaka baboons via increased disease risk. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Financial support from this project came primarily from the University of Roehampton, via a student bursary and a research grant from the department of Life Sciences. Additional funding was provided by the North of England Zoological Society, which also provides core funding to the Gashaka Primate Project, and the Leakey Trust. Field work for this project was conducted with permission from the Nigerian National Parks Service and Professor Volker Sommer, director of the Gashaka Primate Project (GPP). I would like to thank the staff of GPP, in particular my excellent field assistants Halidu Ilyusun (Dan-Azumi), Maikanti Hassan, Bobbo Buba and Buba Bello, without whose expertise I would never have been able to find and keep up with the baboons. Thanks also go to Hammounde Guruza, Felix Vitalis, Buba Hammaselbe and Nodza George of GPP and my volunteer research assistants, James Tallant and Rosie Lodge. I would like to thank my collaborator, Dr Sylvia Ortmann, and the technical staff at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. The nutritional analysis of the baboons’ food items for this project was only possible with their expertise and assistance. From the University of Roehampton, I would first like to thank my excellent supervisors, Dr Caroline Ross and Professor Ann MacLarnon, whose support and guidance throughout the last four years has made this thesis possible. I would also like to thank the technical staff, Amanda Morgan, Mary Mackenzie and especially Balbir Singh Josen, who provided so much help with my hormone analyses. Thanks also go to the staff and students of CREEA and CRE for providing such an inspirational and iii enjoyable research environment. Special thanks go to Nienke Alberts, my fellow baboon researcher, who showed me the way to Gashaka, taught me how to live in the bush and generally provided support and friendship throughout my time in Nigeria. I also want to thank Charlotte Carne, Laura Buck, Laetitia Marechal, Astrid Willener and Stephanie Bird for all their comments and help with my work over the last year and for countless discussions about work-related, and less work-related, subjects. Lastly I would like to thank my family. My husband, Tom Pollard, has supported me in so many ways since, and before, I started this project including following me to Nigeria and spending seven months living in a remote village, thereby making my time in Nigeria possible. My sister, Rosie, not only provided excellent research assistance to me during my field work but instilled in me a love of science and zoology from a young age and without whose inspiration I may never had embarked on this career path. Finally, my thanks go to my Mother and Father for everything they have given me, they made me the person I am today. iv CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ xii CONTENTS OF APPENDICES ................................................................................. xviii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 1.1. Primate diets ........................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1. Individual variation in nutritional requirements .............................................. 3 1.1.2. Chemical components of primate food ............................................................ 5 1.2. Energy balance and fitness ................................................................................... 12 1.2.1. Energetics and reproduction .......................................................................... 13 1.2.2. Food-enhancement ......................................................................................... 18 1.2.3. Dominance Rank............................................................................................ 20 1.2.4. Urinary C-peptide as a physiological measure of energetic status ................ 22 1.3. Study species and site ........................................................................................... 23 1.3.1. Baboon studies ............................................................................................... 23 1.4. Study aims ............................................................................................................ 27 1.4.1. Specific objectives ......................................................................................... 27 1.4.2. Hypotheses ..................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2: FIELD AND LABORATORY METHODS ............................................ 29 2.1. Field site and study troops .................................................................................... 29 2.1.1. Troop composition throughout study period ................................................. 31 2.1.2. Weather patterns and fruit availability throughout the year .......................... 33 2.2. Field work data collection methods ...................................................................... 38 2.2.1. Behavioural Data collection........................................................................... 38 2.2.2 Sample Collection ........................................................................................... 44 2.3. Laboratory Methods ............................................................................................. 48 2.3.1. Faecal sample analysis ................................................................................... 48 2.3.2. Analysis of urine samples for urinary C-peptide (UCP) content ................... 56 2.3.3. Nutritional analysis of food samples ............................................................