Foraging and ranging behavior during a fallback episode:Hylobates albibarbisandPongo pygmaeus wurmbiicompared

Erin R. Vogel · Livia Haag · Tatang Mitra Setia · Carel P. van Schaik · Nathaniel Jay Dominy

133 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Primate Behavior and Ecology Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Plant and animal studies

Abstract

Periodic episodes of food scarcity may highlight the adaptive value of certain anatomical traits, particularly those that facilitate the acquisition and digestion of exigent fallback foods. To better understand the selective pressures that favored the distinctive dental and locomotor morphologies of gibbons and orangutans, we examined the foraging and ranging behavior of sympatric Hylobates albibarbis and Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii during an episode of low fruit availability at Tuanan, Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia. We found that Hylobates ranged 0.5 km day(-1) or 33% farther than did Pongo, but the overall daily ranging of both species did not vary as fruit availability decreased by as much as 50%. Among gibbons, we observed dietary switching to fallback foods; in particular, there was a progressively greater reliance on figs, liana products, and unripe fruit. Orangutans relied heavily on unripe fruit and fracture-resistant bark and pith tissues. Despite these divergent fallback patterns, the stiffness of fruit mesocarp consumed by Hylobates and Pongo did not differ. We discuss canine and molar functional morphology with respect to dietary mechanics. Next, to contextualize these results, we discuss our findings with respect to forest structure. The rain forests of Southeast Asia have been described as having open, discontinuous canopies. Such a structure may inform our understanding of the ranging behavior and distinctive locomotion of apes in the region, namely richochetal brachiation and quadrumanous clambering. Our approach of integrating behavioral ecology with physical measures of food may be a powerful tool for understanding the functional adaptations of primates.

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References

1984Five New World Primates: A Study in Comparative Ecology 1969Recent advances in primatology 1974The behaviour and ecology of wild orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus)1978Primate Ecology: Studies of Feeding and Ranging Behaviour in Lemurs, Monkeys and Apes 2004Dental Functional Morphology 2007Evolutionary Consequences of Fallback Foods 1998Changes in Orangutan Caloric Intake, Energy Balance, and Ketones in Response to Fluctuating Fruit Availability 2007Evolution of the human diet: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable

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2011Strategies for the Use of Fallback Foods in Apes 2012Forest Structure and Support Availability Influence Orangutan Locomotion in Sumatra and Borneo 2012Fallback Foods of Red Leaf Monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda) in Danum Valley, Borneo 2014Effects of dietary fracture toughness and dental wear on chewing efficiency in geladas ( T heropithecus gelada)2016Food mechanical properties and dietary ecology 2018

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