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BackgroundComparative data from non-human primates provide insight into the processes that shaped the evolution of the human gut microbiome and highlight microbiome traits that differentiate humans from other primates. Here, in an effort to improve our understanding of the human microbiome, we compare gut microbiome composition and functional potential in 14 populations of humans from ten nations and 18 species of wild, non-human primates.ResultsContrary to expectations from host phylogenetics, we find that human gut microbiome composition and functional potential are more similar to those of cercopithecines, a subfamily of Old World monkey, particularly baboons, than to those of African apes. Additionally, our data reveal more inter-individual variation in gut microbiome functional potential within the human species than across other primate species, suggesting that the human gut microbiome may exhibit more plasticity in response to environmental variation compared to that of other primates.ConclusionsGiven similarities of ancestral human habitats and dietary strategies to those of baboons, these findings suggest that convergent ecologies shaped the gut microbiomes of both humans and cercopithecines, perhaps through environmental exposure to microbes, diet, and/or associated physiological adaptations. Increased inter-individual variation in the human microbiome may be associated with human dietary diversity or the ability of humans to inhabit novel environments. Overall, these findings show that diet, ecology, and physiological adaptations are more important than host-microbe co-diversification in shaping the human microbiome, providing a key foundation for comparative analyses of the role of the microbiome in human biology and health.

OBJECTIVES Geophagy, the intentional consumption of earth, is widely practiced among humans and other mammals, but its causes are not well understood. Given the growing number of reports of geophagy among nonhuman primates (NHP), we sought to (1) advance and codify our understanding of the patterns and functional and evolutionary significance of geophagy among NHP and (2) provide a research agenda for a more unified approach to its study. METHODS We systematically reviewed all available literature on NHP geophagy, extracted available data on taxa, geography, climate, diet, sex, age-class, reproductive status, and the characteristics of the earth. We used these data to evaluate three major hypotheses about geophagy, that it is protective, provides mineral supplementation, and is nonadaptive. RESULTS We identified 287 accounts of geophagy among 136 species, adding 79 new primate species to the list of those considered in prior reviews. Nineteen percent of species were in the suborder Strepsirrhini, while 81% were in the suborder Haplorrhini. There were reports of geophagy from 9 of the 17 families and 39 of the 76 genera currently recognized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. DISCUSSION The limited evidence suggests that geophagy is adaptive, and provides protection and mineral supplementation. We specify the behavioral, dietary, and soil data required to more rigorously investigate these hypotheses across representative species of all taxonomic groups, geographical regions, and dietary classification. Given the plausibility of geophagy for maintaining the health of both wild and captive populations, we urge further study and conservation of geophagy sites.

Endozoochory is an essential plant-animal interaction in tropical forests, involving the swallowing and defecation of seeds. To better understand whether anatomical traits (i.e. body mass and skull dimensions) are good predictors of seed dispersal in mammals we studied the relationships between morphology, fruit and seed size and seed dispersal distance across three orders: Chiroptera, Primates, and Carnivora. Our results revealed that body mass is an important driver of the size of ingested seeds for all orders and of the seed dispersal distance produced by Primates. In addition, the distance between the molars, jaw length, and jaw gape are good predictors of the size of ingested seeds. These results show how body mass and cranial anatomy constrain ingested seed size and dispersal distance across mammals and reinforce the importance of maintaining functional diversity in seed dispersers to maintain tropical forest structure and regeneration.

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were eliminated from the state of Oregon in the middle of the 20th century. By the early 21st century, wolves had returned to the northeast corner of the state, dispersing from populations reintroduced in Idaho and Wyoming. On a series of random‐sample telephone surveys (2011–2018), we asked more than 3,000 northeast Oregon residents about their preferences concerning wolf management strategies. One‐third of the respondents said that wolves should be eliminated from this region. Sociopolitical identity dominated other individual characteristics including age, education, years resident, and forestland ownership in predicting wolf‐management views. Political effects appear even stronger when our indicator distinguishes the most conservative, and further intensify when most of the respondent's friends belong to the same party. This strong influence of sociopolitical identity echoes findings from the broader literature on environmental concern, but adds a new and policy‐relevant element to wolf‐attitude research. As wolves expand throughout the west, and new states consider reintroduction, state and federal wildlife managers face deeply rooted opposition. Managers must consider a range of strategies to manage wolves while working with community leaders in wolf‐occupied areas to determine management options.

Human influence on the environment is evident at all landscape and ecological scales, from local to global, shaping both abiotic and biotic processes. Niche construction theory provides a means by which to investigate the consequences of these anthropogenic effects, but primatological research has been slow to integrate ecological and evolutionary timelines. We review methods that can be used to study how human niche construction influences nonhuman primates including phenological assessment, nonhuman primate behavioral observations, and ethnographic interview techniques. We argue that this approach provides a starting place to examine niche construction theory but that scholars of primate behavioral ecology must expand our methodologies to bridge the disconnect between ecological and evolutionary research time frames. We suggest areas of research and methods that have been underused but offer opportunities for integrative, innovative research. We conclude that an integrated, synthetic methodological approach is a major goal and that it will likely require a cross-disciplinary, collaborative effort.

Insectivory, or the consumption of insects and other arthropods, is a significant yet cryptic component of omnivorous primate diets. Here, we used high-throughput DNA sequencing to identify arthropods from fecal DNA and assess variation in insectivory by closely-related sympatric primates. We identified arthropod prey taxa and tested the hypothesis that variation in insectivory facilitates niche differentiation and coexistence among closely-related species with high dietary overlap. We collected 233 fecal samples from redtail (Cercopithecus ascanius; n = 118) and blue monkeys (C. mitis; n = 115) and used a CO1 metabarcoding approach to identify arthropod DNA in each fecal sample. Arthropod DNA was detected in 99% of samples (N = 223 samples), and a total of 68 families (15 orders) were identified. Redtails consumed arthropods from 54 families, of which 12 (21.8%) were absent from blue monkey samples. Blue monkeys consumed arthropods from 56 families, of which 14 (24.6%) were absent from redtail samples. For both species, >97% of taxa present belonged to four orders (Araneae, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera). Redtail samples contained more Lepidoptera taxa (p

Tony L. Goldberg · Samuel Angedakin · Gilbert M. Isabirye Basuta · Michelle Brown · Thomas M. Butynski · Colin A. Chapman · Lauren Chapman · Sholly Gunter · Innocent Kato · Jean-Michel Krief · Sabrina Krief · Joanna E. Lambert · Kevin E. Langergraber · John C. Mitani · Martin N. Muller · Sherry V. Nelson · Patrick Omeja · Emily Otali · Kevin B. Potts · Elizabeth A. Ross · Jessica M. Rothman · Carolyn Rowney · Eric Sande · Thomas T. Struhsaker · Dennis Twinomugisha · David P. Watts · Geoffrey Weny · Richard W. Wrangham

The African savannas that many early hominins occupied likely experienced stark seasonality and contained mosaic habitats (i.e., combinations of woodlands, wetlands, grasslands, etc.). Most would agree that the bulk of dietary calories obtained by taxa such as Australopithecus and Paranthropus came from the consumption of vegetation growing across these landscapes. It is also likely that many early hominins were selective feeders that consumed particular plants/plant parts (e.g., leaves, fruit, storage organs) depending on the habitat and season within which they were foraging. Thus, improving our understanding of how the nutritional properties of potential hominin plant foods growing in modern African savanna ecosystems respond to season and vary by habitat will improve our ability to model early hominin dietary behavior. Here, we present nutritional analyses (crude protein and acid detergent fiber) of plants growing in eastern and southern African savanna habitats across both wet and dry seasons. We find that many assumptions about savanna vegetation are warranted. For instance, plants growing in our woodland habitats have higher average protein/fiber ratios than those growing in our wetland and grassland transects. However, we find that the effects of season and habitat are complex, an example being the unexpectedly higher protein levels we observe in the grasses and sedges growing in our Amboseli wetlands during the dry season. Also, we find significant differences between the vegetation growing in our eastern and southern African field sites, particularly among plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway. This may have implications for the differences we see between the stable carbon isotope compositions and dental microwear patterns of eastern and southern African Paranthropus species, despite their shared, highly derived craniodental anatomy.

Discussions about early hominin diets have generally excluded grass leaves as a staple food resource, despite their ubiquity in most early hominin habitats. In particular, stable carbon isotope studies have shown a prevalent C4 component in the diets of most taxa, and grass leaves are the single most abundant C4 resource in African savannas. Grass leaves are typically portrayed as having little nutritional value (e.g., low in protein and high in fiber) for hominins lacking specialized digestive systems. It has also been argued that they present mechanical challenges (i.e., high toughness) for hominins with bunodont dentition. Here, we compare the nutritional and mechanical properties of grass leaves with the plants growing alongside them in African savanna habitats. We also compare grass leaves to the leaves consumed by other hominoids and demonstrate that many, though by no means all, compare favorably with the nutritional and mechanical properties of known primate foods. Our data reveal that grass leaves exhibit tremendous variation and suggest that future reconstructions of hominin dietary ecology take a more nuanced approach when considering grass leaves as a potential hominin dietary resource.

Eating is a risky affair. All animals have to offset risks of feeding such as exposure to plant toxins, increased vulnerability to predation, or conspecific aggression with a food's energetic and nutritional return. What, when, and where an individual eats can impact fitness and, ultimately, species-level adaptations. Here, we explore the variables that influence primate feeding preference: food availability, chemical defense, and nutrient content. We present information demonstrating that consumers manipulate nutrient and energy intake, indicating that what may be a less-than-optimal food for one state of an animal's phenotype may not be for another. This evidence suggests that factors previously assumed to be constraints in Optimal Foraging Theory, Functional Response, and—recently—Fallback Food feeding models would be better categorized as variables. We conclude that “fallback” is not an intrinsic state of the food or the consumer and that this conclusion complicates the application of this concept to morphological features in the fossil record.

Most extant primates feed on insects to some degree, yet the nutritional contributions of insects to primate diets are poorly characterized. Like many small- bodied frugivorous primates, redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) also eat insects. We quantified the nutritional contributions of insects to the diets of female redtail monkeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda, from July 2010 to June 2012 through full day follows (N = 64) using weight-based estimates of food intake. Female redtail monkeys targeted insects for 41 % of feeding bouts, plant reproductive parts (including ripe fruits, unripe fruits, flowers, seeds) for 15 % of feeding bouts, and leaves (including young leaves, mature leaves, leaf petioles, leaf buds) for 17 % of feeding bouts. However, females spent just under 10 % of feeding time on insects, in contrast to 42 % on plant reproductive parts and 39 % on leaves. Redtail monkeys fed primarily on

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Impending extinction of the world’s primates due to human activities; immediate global attention is needed to reverse the trend., Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem health. Current information shows the existence of 504 species in 79 genera distributed in the Neotropics, mainland Africa, Madagascar, and Asia. Alarmingly, ~60% of primate species are now threatened with extinction and ~75% have declining populations. This situation is the result of escalating anthropogenic pressures on primates and their habitats—mainly global and local market demands, leading to extensive habitat loss through the expansion of industrial agriculture, large-scale cattle ranching, logging, oil and gas drilling, mining, dam building, and the construction of new road networks in primate range regions. Other important drivers are increased bushmeat hunting and the illegal trade of primates as pets and primate body parts, along with emerging threats, such as climate change and anthroponotic diseases. Often, these pressures act in synergy, exacerbating primate population declines. Given that primate range regions overlap extensively with a large, and rapidly growing, human population characterized by high levels of poverty, global attention is needed immediately to reverse the looming risk of primate extinctions and to attend to local human needs in sustainable ways. Raising global scientific and public awareness of the plight of the world’s primates and the costs of their loss to ecosystem health and human society is imperative.

In this research, we use a combination of ethnographic observation and GIS analysis to explore the use of space by humans and gibbons (Hylobates moloch) to determine areas of potential space competition in the sacred forest and nature reserve Cagar Alam Leuweung Sancang in West Java, Indonesia. More specifically, we test whether gibbons respond to the presence of humans in a manner consistent with predator-avoidance and predicted that the gibbon study subjects would avoid areas visited by humans (Risk-Disturbance Hypothesis). Data were collected August 2010-June 2011. We collected GPS locations and behavioral data on both the humans (6,652 hours) and the gibbons (1,253 hours) in the forest using 10 minute instantaneous sampling. Results indicate that humans preferentially assemble at the most sacred spot in the forest (Cikajayaan waterfall). Two gibbon groups’ home ranges encompassed most of the sacred areas. Group B avoided areas of high human use, as high human use areas and high gibbon use areas did not overlap. Group C, though, continued to use areas that were heavily visited by humans. We thus found partial support for the Risk-Disturbance Hypothesis, although the variation in gibbon response to human disturbance indicates behavioral flexibility. We suggest that understanding the effects of shared space on wildlife is necessary for informing conservation policy in human-visited forests.

Animal-mediated seed dispersal is important for sustaining biological diversity in forest ecosystems, particularly in the tropics. Forest fragmentation, hunting, and selective logging modify forests in myriad ways and their effects on animal-mediated seed dispersal have been examined in many case studies. However, the overall effects of different types of human disturbance on animal-mediated seed dispersal are still unknown. We identified 35 articles that provided 83 comparisons of animal-mediated seed dispersal between disturbed and undisturbed forests; all comparisons except one were conducted in tropical or subtropical ecosystems. We assessed the effects of forest fragmentation, hunting, and selective logging on seed dispersal of fleshy-fruited tree species. We carried out a meta-analysis to test whether forest fragmentation, hunting, and selective logging affected 3 components of animal-mediated seed dispersal: frugivore visitation rate, number of seeds removed, and distance of seed dispersal. Forest fragmentation, hunting, and selective logging did not affect visitation rate and were marginally associated with a reduction in seed-dispersal distance. Hunting and selective logging, but not fragmentation, were associated with a large reduction in the number of seeds removed. Fewer seeds of large-seeded than of small-seeded tree species were removed in hunted or selectively logged forests. A plausible explanation for the consistently negative effects of hunting and selective logging on large-seeded plant species is that large frugivores, as the predominant seed dispersers for large-seeded plant species, are the first animals to be extirpated from hunted or logged forests. The reduction in forest area after fragmentation appeared to have weaker effects on frugivore communities and animal-mediated seed dispersal than hunting and selective logging. The differential effects of hunting and selective logging on large- and small-seeded tree species underpinned case studies that showed disrupted plant-frugivore interactions could trigger a homogenization of seed traits in tree communities in hunted or logged tropical forests. ©2012 Society for Conservation Biology.

Almost half of the world's extant primate species are of conservation concern [IUCN, International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, 2008]. Primates are also effective seed dispersers. The implications of and interactions between these two facts are increasingly understood, and data demonstrating the consequences of losing primates for forest ecology are now available from throughout the tropics. However, a reality is that not all species—and the mutualisms among them—can be protected. Conservation managers must make difficult decisions and use shortcuts in the implementation of conservation tactics. Using taxa as “umbrellas” is one such shortcut, although a lack of an operational definition of what an umbrella species is and how to choose one has made implementing this tactic difficult. In this study, I discuss primates as umbrellas by defining a selection index in terms of richness/co-occurrence, rarity, and sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance. I evaluate the anthropoid assemblage of Kibale National Park, Uganda, in light of the selection index and determine that Cercopithecus is the genus best fitting the criteria for umbrella status. I then evaluate the functional significance—in terms of seed dispersal—of using Cercopithecus monkeys (guenons) as umbrellas. Results from 1,047 hr of observation of focal fruiting trees in Kibale indicate that Cercopithecus ascanius was the most commonly observed frugivore visitor (July 2001–June 2002). These data corroborate earlier data collected in Kibale demonstrating that guenons are highly effective seed dispersers. Patterns of richness/co-occurrence, rarity, and sensitivity observed in Kibale are reflected in Afrotropical forests more generally, with the genus Cercopithecus tending to exhibit greatest richness/co-occurrence with taxonomically similar species, to be neither extremely rare nor ubiquitous, and also to be moderately sensitive to human disturbance. Moreover, in all available evaluations of frugivory in Afrotropical forests, guenons emerge as among the most important seed dispersers relative to other taxa. Am. J. Primatol. 73:9–24, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

In this discussion, I evaluate our understanding of fallback foods in primate and hominin ecology and evolution with reference to the challenges of nomenclature, scale, and of linking individual responses to food availability and properties (process) to species traits (pattern). I use these challenges to form the framework of my discussion and ultimately conclude that we situate the discussion of primate fallback strategy into a broader, "synthetic" framework of animal form and the evolutionary significance of phenotypic plasticity.

Physical traits, such as body size, and processes like growth can be used as indices of primate health and can add to our understanding of life history and behavior. Accurately measuring physical traits in the wild can be challenging because capture is difficult, disrupts animals, and may cause injury. To measure physical traits of arboreal primates remotely, we adapted a parallel laser technique that has been used with terrestrial and marine mammals. Two parallel lasers separated by a known distance (4 cm) and mounted onto a digital camera are projected onto an animal. When a photograph is taken, the laser projections on the target provide a scale bar. We validated the technique for measuring the physical traits of identifiable red colobus monkeys (Procolobus rufomitratus) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. First, we photographed the tails of monkeys with laser projections and compared these with measurements previously obtained when the animals were captured. Second, we manually measured the distance between two markers placed on tree branches at similar heights to those used by monkeys, and compared them with the measurements obtained through digital photographs of the markers with parallel laser projections. The mean tail length of the monkeys via manual measurements was 63.3+/-4.4 cm, and via remote measurements was 63.0+/-4.1 cm. The mean distance between the markers on tree branches via manual measurements was 13.8+/-3.59 cm, and via remote measurements was 13.9+/-3.58 cm. The mean error using parallel lasers was 1.7% in both cases. Although the needed precision will depend on the question asked, our results suggest that sufficiently precise measurements of physical traits or substrates of arboreal primates can be obtained remotely using parallel lasers.

As a result of forest modification, primates are increasingly having to rely on fragments; so too are the human populations that have historically relied on continuous forest for critical resources. The role of primates in seed dispersal is increasingly understood to have significant unique effects on plant demography and forest regeneration. Our aim in this paper is to explore the potential for monkey seed dispersers to maintain the utility of forest fragments for humans through seed dispersal in the Taï region, western Côte-d'Ivoire. We established a list of fruit species whose seeds are dispersed by seven of eight monkey species occurring in the Taï National Park by using primary data and published accounts of their fruit diet, and determined the abundance of human-used and monkey-dispersed tree species in forest fragments in the broader Taï region. The monkeys of the Taï National Park consumed 75 tree species. Of this total set of 75 species, 52 (69%) were dispersed almost exclusively by monkeys and were found in neighboring forest fragments. Of the 52 fruiting forest tree species that are dispersed by Taï monkeys, 25 (48%) have some utility to local inhabitants suggesting that maintaining populations of primates is important not only for forest regeneration, but also for human populations that rely on forest resources. The conservation of primate species is a critically important goal in itself, but by working to ensure their protection in forest fragments, we certainly protect indirectly the seed dispersal of important human resources in these fragments as well.

Mammal populations are increasingly hunted, yet the consequences of their disappearance from tropical forests have only recently been explored. Here, we summarize current research on the role of mammals in seed dispersal and postdispersal processes, such as seed predation and secondary dispersal, in different tropical regions. We evaluate how mammal features influence seedshadows and ultimately forest regeneration. Finally, we discuss the potential effect of changes in seedshadows caused by the elimination of many medium- and large-sized mammals. The complex role that mammals play in creating and modifying seedshadows in tropical forests cannot be easily quantified, and in this review we emphasize the variation that exists both within and among mammal taxa and across continents. To bridge this gap in information, we suggest that more studies should evaluate the relative importance of the disappearance of both seed dispersers and seed predators for particular plant species so that we may begin to understand the balance between these two influences. We also suggest that future studies identify ecological redundancy in nonhunted vertebrates within any particular community to evaluate compensatory behavior that may help ameliorate some of the negative effects of hunting of large and medium mammals.

Gastric acidity is likely a key factor shaping the diversity and composition of microbial communities found in the vertebrate gut. We conducted a systematic review to test the hypothesis that a key role of the vertebrate stomach is to maintain the gut microbial community by filtering out novel microbial taxa before they pass into the intestines. We propose that species feeding either on carrion or on organisms that are close phylogenetic relatives should require the most restrictive filter (measured as high stomach acidity) as protection from foreign microbes. Conversely, species feeding on a lower trophic level or on food that is distantly related to them (e.g. herbivores) should require the least restrictive filter, as the risk of pathogen exposure is lower. Comparisons of stomach acidity across trophic groups in mammal and bird taxa show that scavengers and carnivores have significantly higher stomach acidities compared to herbivores or carnivores feeding on phylogenetically distant prey such as insects or fish. In addition, we find when stomach acidity varies within species either naturally (with age) or in treatments such as bariatric surgery, the effects on gut bacterial pathogens and communities are in line with our hypothesis that the stomach acts as an ecological filter. Together these results highlight the importance of including measurements of gastric pH when investigating gut microbial dynamics within and across species.

Conservation efforts are often aimed at one or a few species. However, habitat sustainability relies on ecological interactions among species, such as seed dispersal. Thus, a community-scale conservation strategy may be more valuable in some settings. We describe communities of primary (primates) and secondary (dung beetles) seed dispersers from 5 sites in the Brazilian Amazon. We estimate community biomass of these taxa and, using multivariate ordination, examine the potential for natural reforestation at each site, given the communities of seed dispersers present. Since disturbed habitat is increasingly common and increasingly the focus of conservation efforts, we also examine differences among seed disperser communities between primary forest and secondary growth at each site. Analyses of faunal biomass in different localities and habitats indicate that secondary growth receives nearly as much use by primates as primary forest; given the dominant groups of dung beetles in secondary growth, disturbed habitat should show a pattern of seed burial that is clumped and deep. Areas with high biomass of Alouatta spp. and the large nocturnal dung beetle species may have the greatest potential for natural reforestation of secondary growth particularly for large seeded species. The data suggest that knowledge of the biomass of primary and secondary dispersing fauna facilitates predictions for the likelihood of disturbed habitat to regenerate and comparisons of sites in broader geographical areas e.g., Neotropical vs. Paleotropical forests.

Like all animals, primates must garner sufficient energy and nutrients from their habitat to accomplish other biological imperatives such as mating and avoiding predators. The order Primates exhibits an extraordinary diversity of feeding and foraging-related adaptations to meet this imperative, some of which are shared with other taxa, others of which are unique to primates. In this chapter, I explore the evolutionary underpinnings of these adaptations as well as evaluate their ecological implications. I first discuss several unique aspects of primate feeding biology, including the evolution of large brains, trichromatic color vision, and tool use. I then move on to evaluate the fundamental problems of plant fiber and chemical defenses and conclude by arguing that primate adaptations for J.E. Lambert (*) The University of Texas, San Antonio, TX, USA e-mail: joanna.lambert@utsa.edu # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 W. Henke, I. Tattersall (eds.), Handbook of Paleoanthropology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-39979-4_39 1631 fermenting fiber and detoxifying plant chemical defenses have implications for primate species adaptations, abundance, and richness since the Miocene. Because of the implications for understanding adaptations in our own lineage, in this latter section I pay particular attention to Catarrhini of Africa; I employ a strongly comparative approach and evaluate hominoid feeding biology in light of what we know about Cercopithecoidea.

Kibale National Park, Uganda, has a rich and abundant primate community and a complicated history of anthropogenic disturbance. Moreover, it has been the focus of over 30 yr of research and has received considerable attention from nongovernmental and governmental conservation organizations. As a result, Kibale serves as a valuable case study with which to evaluate the factors that regulate primate population density and the challenges of deriving generalizations for conservation. We review the impact of logging and forest fragmentation on primate population density and trace the efficacy of various conservation strategies. A 28-yr comparison of primate abundance in logged and unlogged forests and a 10-yr study of forest dynamics showed that primate recovery in logged areas is generally slow or not occurring at all for some species, which is likely driven by the fact that the forest is not recovering as expected. No primate species characteristic predicted their ability to live in forest fragments around Kibale. While a nutritional model was useful to predict the abundance of colobus in forest fragments outside of Kibale, a 5-yr study revealed that human land-use practices are more fundamentally shaping population dynamics. We evaluate data on primate abundance in light of Milton’s protein/fiber model to predict colobine biomass. We demonstrate that while the model can predict colobus biomass in pristine habitats, the 2 colobus species respond differently to disturbance. We offer suggestions for future conservation research and consider strategies to conserve forested national parks based on experiences gained over 30 yr.

Because the length of time food is maintained in the gut influences fermentation rates and its overall digestibility, information on digestive passage rates is critical to explain the overall feeding and foraging strategy of a species. I present results from digestive passage experiments conducted on captive Cercopithecus ascanius, C. mitis, C. neglectus, Miopithecus talapoin, and Pan troglodytes. I recorded several measures of digestive passage time, including transit time (time of first marker appearance; TT), mean retention time of markers (MRT), and time of last appearance of a marker (TLA). I conducted 4 trials on each of the 10 subjects. A trial consists of the administration of 20, non-toxic colored plastic markers. Overall, the 5 species varied in digestive times (p < 0.01), but there is no difference between Cercopithecus neglectus and Pan troglodytes (p = 0.131) or between C. mitis and C. ascanius (p = 0.661). When the effect of body size is removed (by computing the ratio y/x, where x = body mass, and y = MRT), Pan troglodytes exhibits a low ratio, suggesting relatively slow retention times in the 4 cercopithecines. My findings and other published digestive passage rates suggest that lengthy digestive retention times may be characteristic of cercopithecines. These data may help to interpret how the smaller-bodied guenons are able to consume a higher percentage of fiber than that of chimpanzees, a specialized frugivore. Small body size, in combination with long digestive passage times may be an adaptation on the part of Cercopithecus species to consume a high fiber diet, while maintaining a greater capacity to detoxify secondary metabolites.

Microbial populations in the gastrointestinal tract contribute to host health and nutrition. Although gut microbial ecology is well studied in livestock and domestic animals, little is known of the endogenous populations inhabiting primates or carnivora. We characterized microbial populations in fecal cultures from gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) and binturongs (Arctictis binturong) to compare the microbiomes associated with different gastrointestinal morphologies and different omnivorous feeding strategies. Each species was fed a distinct standardized diet for 2 weeks prior to fecal collection. All diets were formulated to reflect the species' feeding strategies in situ. Fresh fecal samples were pooled within species and used to inoculate in vitro batch cultures. Acetate, propionate, butyrate and valerate were measured after 24 h of incubation. Eubacterial DNA was extracted from individual fecal samples, pooled, and the cpn60 gene region was amplified and then sequenced to identify the major eubacterial constituents associated with each host species. Short chain fatty acids (P < 0.001) and methane (P < 0.001) were significantly different across species. Eubacterial profiles were consistent with fermentation data and suggest an increase in diversity with dietary fiber.

Exclusive frugivory is rare. As a food resource, fruit is temporally and spatially patchy, low in protein, and variable in terms of energy yield from different carbohydrate types. Here, we evaluate the digestive physiology of two frugivorous Carnivora species (Potos flavus, Arctictis binturong) that converge with primates in a diversity of ecological and anatomical traits related to fruit consumption. We conducted feeding trials to determine mean digestive retention times (MRT) on captive animals at the Carnivore Preservation Trust (now Carolina Tiger Rescue), Pittsboro, NC. Fecal samples were collected on study subjects for in vitro analysis to determine methane, pH, and short chain fatty acid profiles; fiber was assayed using standard neutral detergent (NDF) and acid detergent (ADF) fiber methods. Results indicate that both carnivoran species have rapid digestive passage for mammals that consume a predominantly plant-based diet: A. binturong MRT = 6.5 hrs (0.3); P. flavus MRT = 2.5 hrs (1.6). In vitro experiments revealed no fermentation of structural polysaccharides – methane levels did not shift from 0 h to either 24 or 48 hours and no short chain fatty acids were detected. In both species, however, pH declined from one incubation period to another suggesting acidification and bacterial activity of microbes using soluble carbohydrates. A comparison with primates indicates that the study species are most similar in digestive retention times to Ateles – the most frugivorous anthropoid primate taxon.

I report data collected on red-tailed guenon (Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti) fruit processing behaviors between June 1993 and April 1994. Red-tailed guenons consumed the fruit of Strychnos mitis in 542 of 2,930 fruit-eating events (FEEs). The monkeys spat out cleaned seeds of Strychnos mitis in a majority of these records (477/542; 88%); seeds were occasionally swallowed whole, but only when pulp was unripe (69/542; 12%). In 83% of the FEEs on Strychnos, the red-tailed guenons spat out seeds within 10 m of the removal site; they typically stayed in the same tree while processing fruit, and in 56% of the FEEs, they moved

Tropical forests and the animals they support are being threatened byaccelerating rates of forest conversion and degradation. In a continuallyfluctuating sociopolitical world, it is often impossible to protect areasfrom such conversion until the political environment is suitable to pur-sue conservation goals, by which time, the forests have often been con-verted to other uses. This reality suggests a need for inquiry into whichprimate species can persist after different types of disturbances and howquickly primate communities can recover from disturbance. Here we ex-amine the persistence of primate populations in disturbed habitats byproviding a case study of patterns of primate abundance in areas of KibaleNational Park (766 km

Primates are confronted with an array of constraints in feeding on fruit, including the removal of adhesive, energy-rich pulp from seeds. In this paper, I discuss how primates meet this challenge and present data on the fruit-processing and seed-handling behavior of chimpanzees and redtail monkeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda. These data are then related to these species' services as seed dispersers. Particular attention was paid to the methods by which primates removed pulp from seeds, the density of seed clumps that they deposited (by spitting, dropping, or defecating) to the forest floor, and the distance seeds were moved from parent trees. Distance and density differences in chimpanzee and redtail seed dispersal resulted from distinct fruit-processing and seed-handling methods. It was observed, in general, that redtail monkeys engaged in fine oral processing and were seed spitters: most seeds were dispersed in close proximity to parent trees (84% of spat seeds ,10 m of parent tree), and deposited singly (100% seeds spat singly). In contrast, chimpanzees were coarse fruit processors and seed swallowers: seeds were defecated in denser clumps (e.g., a mean of 149 large seeds/dung sample and hundreds of small seeds/dung sample), far from parent trees. I evaluate the factors that shape patterns of fruit processing in hominoids and cercopithecines, and argue that the observed seed handling differences can be attributed to differences in digestive retention times, oral anatomy, and alternative mechanisms by which to avoid the cost of seed ballast. Am J Phys Anthropol 109:365-386, 1999. r 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

In an attempt to understand the practical and/or economic implications of primate seed dispersal, it was established which seed species are dispersed by frugivorous primates in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and which of this sort of species were used by Ugandan people. A list of fruit species consumed by Kibale primates was compiled using primary data and by reviewing all known published accounts of their fruit diet. Primates consume the fruit of 87 Kibale forest tree species; the seeds of 11% of these species are destroyed by the primates. The remaining 77 species are dispersed by either one, two, three or all four of the frugivorous Kibale primates. Of these 77 species, 42% have some utility to local Ugandan inhabitants, suggesting that maintaining populations of primates is important not only for natural forest regeneration, but also for human habitat use. This report illustrates the complexity of the seed dispersal process and suggests links not only between plants and their dispersers, but also between sets of plants/dispersers and the human populations that rely on forest resources. Afin de comprendre les implications pratiques et/ou economiques de la dispersion des semences par les primates, on a montre quelles especes de semences sont dispersees par les primates frugivores du Parc National de Kibale, en Ouganda, et quelles especes parmi celles-laetaient utilisees par les Ougandais. On a etabli une liste des especes a fruits consommees par les primates, en se servant de donnees de base et en revisant tous les rapports connus publies sur leur regime de frugivores. Les primates mangent les fruits de 87 especes d’arbres de la foret de Kibale; les semences de 11% de ces especes sont detruites par les primates. Les 77 especes restantes sont dispersees par un, deux, trois ou les quatre especes de primates frugivores de Kibale. De ces 77 especes, 42% sont de quelque utilite pour les habitants de la region, ce qui signifie que le maintien des populations de primates est important non seulement pour la regeneration naturelle de la fore?t, mais aussi pour l’utilisation humaine de l’habitat. Ce rapport revele d’une part la complexite du processus de dispersion des semences et, d’autre part, les liens non seulement entre les plantes et ceux qui les dispersent mais aussi entre cet ensemble et les populations humaines qui dependent des ressources de la foret.

Food is vital for life. It provides nutrients for growth, maintenance, and reproduction, and is the source of energy that drives the chemical reactions occurring in every cell.1,2 However, most food, as it is initially procured, is not in a form suitable for use; it must first be broken down so that it can be transported through cell membranes.1 The breaking down of food molecules via a system of both mechanical and chemical processes so that they are of use to the body is called digestion.2,3 © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.