Activity budget, home range, and habitat use of moor macaques ( Macaca maura ) in the karst forest of South Sulawesi, In
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Activity budget, home range, and habitat use of moor macaques (Macaca maura) in the karst forest of South Sulawesi, Indonesia Alessandro Albani1 · Maurizio Cutini1 · Lavinia Germani1 · Erin P. Riley2 · Putu Oka Ngakan3 · Monica Carosi1 Received: 7 July 2019 / Accepted: 1 March 2020 © Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Primate behavior can be responsive to the different ecological pressures associated with different habitats, as well as to the effects of direct and indirect anthropogenic disturbance. The karst forest ecosystem of South Sulawesi (Indonesia) represents one of the few intact forests available for residual populations of the moor macaque, but our understanding of its habitat use is limited. In the present study, this gap in knowledge was addressed by observing the activity and habitat use of two groups of moor macaques and by assessing the suitability of different habitats in the karst forest. Through a fine-scale vegetation analysis of 1 ha of forest in Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park, we identified the presence of two distinct habitats that differ in terms of forest structure and composition. The karst plain forest (KPF) provided a greater abundance and diversity of food resources than the karst tower forest (KTF). In addition, anthropogenic disturbance was high in the KPF but low in the KTF. Behavioral data collected via group scans indicate that the macaques devoted more time to feeding activities when in the KPF, suggesting an ability to adjust their feeding behavior to meet their nutritional needs. However, the larger of the two groups used the food-rich KPF more than expected, implying that the KTF may represent a valuable refuge for the smaller group, as it is a less risky portion of its home range. The results of this study therefore provide novel information on the ecology of moor macaques and their habitats that can inform conservation planning for remnant populations. Keywords Sulawesi macaques · Forest structure and composition · Feeding ecology · Anthropogenic disturbance · Conservation
Introduction Habitat structure and composition are known to be two of the main determinants of primate diversity and abundance in tropical forests (e.g., Pyritz et al. 2010). Ecological variables such as forest productivity, precipitation, and seasonality influence primate density and diversity at the landscape level Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-020-00811-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Alessandro Albani [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Department of Sciences, Roma Tre University, Viale Guglielmo Marconi 446, 00146 Rome, Italy
2
Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182, USA
3
Faculty of Forestry, Hasanuddin University, Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan, Km. 10, Makassar 90245, Indonesia
(e.g., Pinto et al. 2009), while differences in
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