CECOAL   02625
CENTRO DE ECOLOGIA APLICADA DEL LITORAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Size, site fidelity and overlap of home ranges and core areas in the socially monogamous owl monkey (Aotus azarae) of Northern Argentina.
Autor/es:
WARTMANN, F; JUÁREZ, C. P.; FERNANDEZ DUQUE, E.
Revista:
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY
Editorial:
SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS
Referencias:
Lugar: New York; Año: 2014
ISSN:
0164-0291
Resumen:
In addition to environmental factors, social variables such as group size may
play an important role in explaining primate ranging patterns. In this study we
investigated range sizes, site fidelity, and range overlaps of owl monkeys (Aotus
azarae) in Northern Argentina. We calculated the size of home range and core areas
for 18 groups in our study area. For the six most intensively studied groups we tested
whether precipitation as a crude proxy for food availability or group size had an
influence on range size, assessed the degree of site fidelity by quantifying overlaps of
annual ranges and core areas, and calculated the amount of range overlap between
neighboring groups for each year. We used the kernel density estimation method to
calculate home ranges as 90% kernel and core areas as 50% kernel. Home range size
(mean ± SD) was 6.2 ha (± 1.8) and core area size 1.9 (± 0.6). Rainfall and group size
were not statistically significant predictors of range sizes. Site fidelity was high, with a
range overlap of 82% (± 11) between consecutive years. Neighboring groups overlapped
over 48% (± 15) of the outer parts of their group ranges and 11% (± 15) of their
core areas. We found no evidence that larger groups occupy larger areas than smaller
groups, suggesting that food availability might be above a critical threshold for owl
monkeys so that larger groups do not need to extend their foraging areas to meet their
energy requirements. Our findings indicate that ranges remain stable over several years
as groups visit the same locations of fruit trees within their range. We showed that owl
monkeys exhibit a considerable degree of range overlap. However, we suggest that this
range overlap might be spatial rather than temporal, which maximizes access to
clumped feeding resources in overlapping areas that are used at distinct times, while
excluding other males from access to females in exclusively used áreas.