Title
Impacts of temperature on behaviour of the Mexican endangered black howler monkey Alouatta pigra lawrence, 1933 (Primates: Atelidae) in a fragmented landscape
Author(s)
Aristizabal, J. F.;Leveque, L.;Chapman, C. A.;Serio-Silva, J. C.
Published
2018
Publisher
Acta Zoologica Bulgarica
Abstract
For primates, habitat degradation and loss lead to increases in solar radiation, temperature and wind, and in decrease of humidity. This, in turn, leads to cascading changes in the habitat's plant species composition and the types and quality of available food but these changes could also affect animal thermoregulatory abilities and behaviour. In this study, we aimed (1) to determine the influence of ambient temperature (T) and humidity (H) on activity patterns of black howler monkeys Alouatta pigra and 2) to test the hypothesis that as the temperature increases, the duration of time resting and frequency of visits in lower canopy increase. We observed two groups (476h) quantifying behaviour and tree stratum use every 15 min. As predicted, animals rested more as temperature increased, they moved into the middle tree strata to rest and there was an interaction between temperature ranges and stratum (GLM: df = 2; P = <0.0001). Since animals were spending more time resting, there was less time available for other behaviours that might mean that they were neglecting other biologically important activities, such as feeding or social behaviours. We identified the importance of maintaining extensive forest areas which would help to minimising the impact of solar radiation on this endangered Mexican primate. Our study shows the importance of understanding the fitness consequences of such altered time budgets with respect to fragmentation and climate change.
Keywords
resting behaviour;thermoregulation;microclimate conditions;abiotic;variables;fragmentation;kibale-national-park;abiotic factors;forest fragmentation;ambient-temperature;energy-expenditure;spider monkeys;white colobus;constraint;time;biodiversity

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PUB23885