The Socioecology of Adult Female Patas Monkeys and Vervets in Kenya

About this book

This field study is intended to introduce students to the habitat, behavior and social organization of the Vervet and Patas monkeys through observation of these primates and quantitative ecological methods of measuring food resources to test current models of nonhuman primate socioecology.

Contents

CH. 1: The Research Question
Study species - Vervets and patas monkeys
Questions and hypotheses
Socioecological theory - Food resources and primate behavior
Scramble and contest competition
Social dominance
Models of female social relationships
Testing the models on Segera: A natural ecological experiment
Holding habitat constant
Other factors affecting female social behavior
Project goals revisited
Study groups
Study subjects

CH. 2. Measuring primate behavior and ecology
"Measuring" ecology
Measuring food availability
Commonly used methods
Primates' perceptions of the foods available to them
Clumped resources and contest competition

CH. 3: Foods available to vervet and patas monkeys
Hypotheses and predictions
Defining a food patch
Measuring food availability
Large-scale food availability
Methods
Results
Small-scale food availability
Methods
Results
Swollen thorn foods
Foods in the riverine habitat
Herbaceous level food availability
Food availability on Segera

CH. 4: Feeding behavior of vervets and patas monkeys
Studying the feeding behavior of sympatric species
Vervets and patas monkeys: Expected differences and similarities
Whistling-thorn Acacia: Why focus on one food species?
Feeding behavior
Continuous sampling
Bout sampling
Rank-related differences in feeding behavior
Patch depletion
Monkeys, Acacia, and ants
Species differences
Within-species differences according to rank

CH. 5: Contest competition and dominance in vervets
The concept of dominance
Testing hypotheses
Results: Contest competition and dominance in vervets
Dominance patterns and feeding competition in vervets
The significance of dominance to vervets
Dominance style in Segera vervets
"Typical" cercopithecines?
Why a stable, linear dominance hierarchy on Segera?

CH. 6: Comparing vervet and patas monkeys in the same habitat.
Questions and Predictions
Agonistic and dominance behavior
Food contestability in vervets and patas monkeys
Dominance in adult females
Feeding competition and whistling-thorn foods
Significance of feeding competition to vervet and patas monkeys

CH. 7: Food availability, feeding competition and dominance in vervet and patas monkeys.
Female contest competition and dominance in vervets and patas monkeys on Segera
How do the models rate?
Summary and implications for future research

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