fruit availability
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Author(s):  
Alison M. Ashbury ◽  
Jade Meric de Bellefon ◽  
Julia A. Kunz ◽  
Misdi Abdullah ◽  
Anna M. Marzec ◽  
...  

AbstractAs climate change continues to fundamentally alter resource landscapes, the ability to flexibly respond to spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of preferred food sources is increasingly important for the overall health and fitness of animals living in seasonal, variable, and/or changing environments. Here, we investigate the effects of an uncharacteristically long period of fruit scarcity, following widespread thick haze caused by peat and forest fires in 2015, on the behaviour and sociality of female Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). We collected data from 2010 to 2018 at Tuanan, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, and compared the activity, diet, and association patterns of adult females during low-fruit periods before the fires, i.e., regular, seasonal periods of low fruit availability (“pre-fire”), and after the fires, i.e., during the extended period of low fruit availability (“post-fire”). First, we found that, post-fire, female orangutans adopted a more extreme energy-saving activity pattern and diet — resting more, travelling less, and diet-switching to less-preferred foods — compared to pre-fire. Second, we found that the probabilities of association between females and their weaned immature offspring, and between related and unrelated adult females were lower, and the probability of agonism between unrelated females was higher, post-fire than pre-fire. This change in energetic strategy, and the general reduction in gregariousness and social tolerance, demonstrates how forest fires can have lasting consequences for orangutans. Fission–fusion species such as orangutans can mitigate the effects of changes in resource landscapes by altering their (sub)grouping patterns; however, this may have long-term indirect consequences on their fitness.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rachel Selwyn

<p>Borneo’s rainforests are experiencing some of the fastest deforestation rates worldwide and are home to increasingly vulnerable species, most of which remain poorly understood. Bornean rainforests exhibit dramatic fluctuations in fruit and seed availability during mast-fruiting events which can exert considerable influence on frugivore ecology. Comprehensive spatiotemporal assessments of habitat use, resource partitioning, and responses to fruit availability in mast-fruiting rainforests are lacking for most species, including ungulates. The distribution and habitat use of an apex predator, the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), may be largely shaped by the availability of these ungulates. Yet, factors driving the spatial ecology of this elusive felid remain uncertain. I aimed to quantify spatiotemporal habitat use dynamics of these species and consequently inform effective conservation planning. Specifically, I quantified the effects of human activity, forest type, elevation, and mast-induced fluctuations in resources on the habitat use of lesser mousedeer (Tragulus kanchil), greater mousedeer (T. napu), Bornean yellow muntjacs (Muntiacus atherodes), red muntjacs (M. muntjak), and bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. I applied data from an extensive camera trapping study (n = 42,610 trap nights) to a modified single-season occupancy model to evaluate habitat use over space and time. I then applied estimates of occurrence (Ψ) of the five ungulate species to quantify if habitat use of the Sunda clouded leopard was influenced by prey occurrence and thus if this apex predator responded to bottom-up effects of resource variability. The results from the ungulate modelling revealed that forest type was an important predictor of habitat use of all ungulate species, each preferring different forest habitats. Habitat use estimates were highest in peat swamp forests for lesser mousedeer (Ψ = 0.92 ± 0.05), alluvial bench forests for greater mousedeer (Ψ = 0.52 ± 0.08), lowland granite forests for yellow (Ψ = 0.95 ± 0.07) and red muntjacs (Ψ = 0.98 ± 0.09), and freshwater swamp forests for bearded pigs (Ψ = 0.84 ± 0.07). Bearded pigs exhibited a link between variation in fruit availability and habitat use, indicating an ability to respond to resource variability. Occupancy modelling for Sunda clouded leopards revealed forest type, fruit availability, and bearded pig occurrence as the best predictors of habitat use. The highest estimates were associated with lowland granite forests (Ψ = 0.87 ± 0.09). My results reveal a novel pattern of niche partitioning through both food and habitat resources among five sympatric ungulate species and demonstrate that Sunda clouded leopards may use fruiting events as a cue for abundant prey. My research sheds light on important factors influencing habitat use of understudied ungulates and an apex predator and can be used to refine estimates of habitat suitability across a greater landscape to inform conservation practice amidst continually shrinking remnant forests in Indonesian Borneo.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rachel Selwyn

<p>Borneo’s rainforests are experiencing some of the fastest deforestation rates worldwide and are home to increasingly vulnerable species, most of which remain poorly understood. Bornean rainforests exhibit dramatic fluctuations in fruit and seed availability during mast-fruiting events which can exert considerable influence on frugivore ecology. Comprehensive spatiotemporal assessments of habitat use, resource partitioning, and responses to fruit availability in mast-fruiting rainforests are lacking for most species, including ungulates. The distribution and habitat use of an apex predator, the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi), may be largely shaped by the availability of these ungulates. Yet, factors driving the spatial ecology of this elusive felid remain uncertain. I aimed to quantify spatiotemporal habitat use dynamics of these species and consequently inform effective conservation planning. Specifically, I quantified the effects of human activity, forest type, elevation, and mast-induced fluctuations in resources on the habitat use of lesser mousedeer (Tragulus kanchil), greater mousedeer (T. napu), Bornean yellow muntjacs (Muntiacus atherodes), red muntjacs (M. muntjak), and bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. I applied data from an extensive camera trapping study (n = 42,610 trap nights) to a modified single-season occupancy model to evaluate habitat use over space and time. I then applied estimates of occurrence (Ψ) of the five ungulate species to quantify if habitat use of the Sunda clouded leopard was influenced by prey occurrence and thus if this apex predator responded to bottom-up effects of resource variability. The results from the ungulate modelling revealed that forest type was an important predictor of habitat use of all ungulate species, each preferring different forest habitats. Habitat use estimates were highest in peat swamp forests for lesser mousedeer (Ψ = 0.92 ± 0.05), alluvial bench forests for greater mousedeer (Ψ = 0.52 ± 0.08), lowland granite forests for yellow (Ψ = 0.95 ± 0.07) and red muntjacs (Ψ = 0.98 ± 0.09), and freshwater swamp forests for bearded pigs (Ψ = 0.84 ± 0.07). Bearded pigs exhibited a link between variation in fruit availability and habitat use, indicating an ability to respond to resource variability. Occupancy modelling for Sunda clouded leopards revealed forest type, fruit availability, and bearded pig occurrence as the best predictors of habitat use. The highest estimates were associated with lowland granite forests (Ψ = 0.87 ± 0.09). My results reveal a novel pattern of niche partitioning through both food and habitat resources among five sympatric ungulate species and demonstrate that Sunda clouded leopards may use fruiting events as a cue for abundant prey. My research sheds light on important factors influencing habitat use of understudied ungulates and an apex predator and can be used to refine estimates of habitat suitability across a greater landscape to inform conservation practice amidst continually shrinking remnant forests in Indonesian Borneo.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-465
Author(s):  
Adriano Antonio Brito Darosci ◽  
Frederico Scherr Caldeira Takahashi ◽  
Carolyn Elinore Barnes Proença ◽  
Lucia Helena Soares-Silva ◽  
Cássia Beatriz Rodrigues Munhoz

Ibis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Yashwant Pawar ◽  
Divya Mudappa ◽  
T. R. Shankar Raman

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 370 (6521) ◽  
pp. 1219-1222
Author(s):  
Emma R. Bush ◽  
Robin C. Whytock ◽  
Laila Bahaa-el-din ◽  
Stéphanie Bourgeois ◽  
Nils Bunnefeld ◽  
...  

Afrotropical forests host much of the world’s remaining megafauna, although these animals are confined to areas where direct human influences are low. We used a rare long-term dataset of tree reproduction and a photographic database of forest elephants to assess food availability and body condition of an emblematic megafauna species at Lopé National Park, Gabon. Our analysis reveals an 81% decline in fruiting over a 32-year period (1986–2018) and an 11% decline in body condition of fruit-dependent forest elephants from 2008 to 2018. Fruit famine in one of the last strongholds for African forest elephants should raise concern about the ability of this species and other fruit-dependent megafauna to persist in the long term, with potential consequences for broader ecosystem and biosphere functioning.


Primates ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla S. Hartwell ◽  
Hugh Notman ◽  
Urs Kalbitzer ◽  
Colin A. Chapman ◽  
Mary M. S. M. Pavelka

Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 855
Author(s):  
Roger Puig-Gironès ◽  
Pere Pons

Faunal responses to wildfire depend on the fire effects on direct mortality, habitat structure, and resource availability for animals. Despite the importance of large predators in terrestrial trophic webs, little is still known about how fire affects carnivorans (the mammalian order Carnivora). To evaluate the responses of the carnivoran community to fire, we studied three recently burnt forest areas in the western Mediterranean basin. Line transects were used to quantify evidence of carnivorans (mainly feces) and to measure environmental variables and resources (small mammal abundance, fleshy fruit availability, and plant cover). Throughout the study, we found 212 carnivoran field signs, 93% of them produced by red fox and stone marten. Immediately after fire, carnivoran occurrence was more frequent close to the perimeter of the burnt area, where fire severity was low, and in places with greater small mammal abundance. Small mammal abundance and plant cover had the greatest effect on the frequency of occurrence of red fox in the burnt area surroundings, and this increased with time-since-fire in the burnt area. Furthermore, the presence of red fox did not affect stone marten occurrence. Stone martens were found around the burnt area perimeter, probably because of their preference for high plant cover, and they were not significantly affected by small mammal abundance. The scat frequency of occurrence of both species was not significantly related to fleshy fruit availability. Accordingly, rodents and carnivorans were more abundant where the habitat was more complex. Our results show that the responses of some carnivorans to fire are influenced, directly and indirectly, by habitat structure and resource availability.


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