Diet & Foraging
What term describes deliberate consumption of soil by primates?
Geophagia - Soil consumption may provide minerals or help mitigate dietary toxins
What is the name for the living AND nonliving components interacting in an area?
Ecosystems
Name one major category of predators of wild primates.
Birds of prey, felids, snakes
What is a catalog of defined behaviors used in systematic observation called?
Ethogram: Operational definitions make observations more consistent.
Name 2 major human activities driving habitat loss in regions with primates
Agricultural, logging, mining
Which major food type is generally more evenly distributed: leaves or ripe fruit?
Leaves - Leaves are often widespread; ripe fruit can be patchy and seasonal; insects often randomly distributed
What forest layers are used most extensively by many arboreal primates?
Canopy and undergrowth (to a lesser extent)
Why can infectious disease transmission be a concern during close human–ape contact?
Shared evolutionary biology can facilitate pathogen transmission.
Which sampling method records the behavior of every individual in sight identified individual at set intervals?
Instantaneous AND scan sampling
The degree to which habitat patches allow organism movement between them is:
Habitat connectivity - can support dispersal and gene flow
Why might a primarily fruit-eating primate travel farther than a leaf-eating primate?
Fruit is more patchily distributed - travel requirements reflect location, availability of resources
What term describes species using different resources or habitat portions to reduce competition?
Niche partitioning - Partitioning can occur by diet, space, or time
Why might smaller primates rely more heavily on concealment than other antipredator strategies?
Small bodies -> more potential predators
Small bodies -> smaller group sizes, less chance of physically fighting off predator
What methodology allows you to visually observe a population of animals without manually following them?
Camera trap - automatically records videos of every animal that triggers the motion sensor and can help address community-level questions
What is an umbrella species in conservation planning?
A species whose protection helps conserve many co-occurring species.
A small primate has protruding, stout incisors and pointed nails. What dietary emphasis would you predict?
Gumnivory
A predator changes a monkey's behavioral and ranging habits without actively hunting them. Name the concept.
Landscape of fear: Perceived risk can shape prey behavior and movement
Provide an example from class on how patterns of disease/injury may be linked with behavior
Diet: cavities in fruit eaters
Broken limbs: suspensory locomotion
Facial scarring: large social groups/interpersonal conflict
What noninvasive method uses autonomous sound recordings to detect calling animals?
Passive acoustic monitoring - can document vocal activity and species presence.
Fruit-eating primates provide what important ecosystem function?
Seed dispersal - can promote forest health and regeneration
Two similarly sized primates eat fruit and leaves respectively. Predict a difference in dentition and digestive system adaptations
Fruit: low, rounded molars with wide spatulate incisors; simple stomach, long small intestines, simple hindgut
Leaves: sharp, pointed cusps on molars; expanded hindgut (cecum and large insestine)
Two species forage in the same forest, one during the day and one at night. Identify TWO additional dimensions they could use to partition their niches.
Vertical space and diet
Provide an example of a specific primate antipredator strategy from class
Alarm calls: vervet, sifaka, ring-tails, spot-nosed monkeys, etc
Avoidance/concealment: marmosets and galagos background matching, galago sleeping holes
Mobbing: baboons, colobus
You want to measure the activity budget of tge alpha male baboon in a troop. Choose a sampling method and justify it.
Focal, continuous
Two primate species share a forest: one is small and insectivorous; the other is large and largely folivorous. Explain THREE predicted differences in ecology or behavior related to body size, diet, locomotion, or predation risk.
Possible: pointed insect-processing teeth vs folivory-related dentition; differences in mass-specific energy needs and food selection; use of thinner supports by smaller species; different predator exposure and antipredator behavior. Credit justified predictions, not unsupported absolutes.