Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

How Do Primates Survive Among Humans? Mechanisms Employed by Vervet Monkeys at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Ethnoprimatology

Part of the book series: Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects ((DIPR))

Abstract

Tropical deforestation is occurring at a rapid rate and while many studies focus on primate adaptations to forest fragment, few studies investigate the impacts of highly degraded areas, where primates cohabit with humans. Here, we investigate how vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) survive and prosper in an extensively modified humanized landscape surrounding the Lake Nabugabo Field Station, Uganda. While the group suffered from deaths caused by dog attacks, electrocution, poisoning to deter crop raiding, and hunting, they appeared to prosper by having a mixed feeding and ranging strategy. This strategy involved consuming a diverse diet that was heavily reliant on a few large fruiting trees, raiding crops, and using a small home range with intense use of specific areas. We propose a six-point approach to improve the conservation status of primates in such degraded habitats

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aggimarangsee, N. (2013). Status monitoring of isolated populations of macaques and other non-human primates in Thailand. In L. K. Marsh & C. A. Chapman (Eds.), Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altmann, J., & Muruthi, P. (1988). Differences in daily life between semiprovisioned and wild-feeding baboons. American Journal of Primatology, 15, 213–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baldellou, M., & Adan, A. (1998). Diurnal and seasonal variation in vervet monkey’s activity. Psychological Report, 83, 675–685.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bonilla-Sanchez, Y. M., Serio-Silva, J. C., Pozo-Montuy, G., & Chapman, C. A. (2012). Does the expansion of Eucalyptus plantations signal hope or despair for black howler monkeys? International Journal of Primatology, 33, 233–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonnell, T. R., Reyna-Hurtado, R., & Chapman, C. A. (2012). Post-logging recovery time is longer than expected in an East African tropical forest. Forest Ecology and Management, 261, 855–864.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, E. J., Else, J. G., & Altmann, J. (1985). Ecology and behaviour of a pest primate: Vervet monkeys in a tourist-lodge habitat. African Journal of Ecology, 23, 35–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, A., & Gould, L. (2013). Fragment-adaptive behavioural strategies and intersite variation in ring-tailed lemur (Lemus catta) at Anja Special Reserve and the Tsaranoro Valley, south-central Madagascar. In L. K. Marsh & C. A. Chapman (Eds.), Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carretero-Pinzón, X. (2013). An eight-year life history study of a primate community in fragments in Colombian llanos. In L. K. Marsh & C. A. Chapman (Eds.), Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caughley, G. (1994). Directions in conservation biology. The Journal of Animal Ecology, 63, 215–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Balcomb, S. R., Gillespie, T., Skorupa, J., & Struhsaker, T. T. (2000). Long-term effects of logging on African primate communities: A 28 year comparison from Kibale National Park, Uganda. Conservation Biology, 14, 207–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Chapman, L. J., & Gillespie, T. R. (2002). Scale issues in the study of primate foraging: Red colobus of Kibale National Park. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 117, 349–363.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, L. J., Chapman, C. A., Schofield, P. J., Olowo, J. P., Kaufman, L. S., Seehausen, O., et al. (2003). Fish faunal resurgence in Lake Nabugabo, East Africa. Conservation Biology, 17, 500–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Chapman, L. J., Struhsaker, T. T., Zanne, A. E., Clark, C. J., & Poulsen, J. R. (2005). A long-term evaluation of fruiting phenology: Importance of climate change. Journal of Tropical Ecology, 21, 31–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Chapman, L. J., Wrangham, R. W., Hunt, K., Gebo, D., & Gardner, L. (1992). Estimators of fruit abundance of tropical trees. Biotropica, 24, 527–531.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., & Peres, C. A. (2001). Primate conservation in the new millennium: The role of scientists. Evolutionary Anthropology, 10, 16–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Saj, T. L., & Snaith, T. V. (2007). Temporal dynamics of nutrition, parasitism, and stress in colobus monkeys: Implications for population regulation and conservation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 134, 240–250.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, C. A., Struhsaker, T. T., Skorupa, J. P., Snaith, T. V., & Rothman, J. M. (2010). Understanding long-term primate community dynamics: Implications of forest change. Ecological Applications, 20, 179–191.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheney, D. L., & Seyfarth, R. M. (1981). Selective forces affecting the prator alarm calls of vervet monkeys. Behaviour, 56, 25–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clemens, E. T., & Malaoiy, G. M. O. (2009). Organic concentrations and digest movement in the gastrointestinal tract of the bushbaby (Galago crassicaudatus) and vervet monkey (Cercopithecus pygerythrus). Journal of Zoology, 193, 487–497.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emrich, A., Pokorny, B., & Sepp, C. (2000). The significance of secondary forest management for development policy. Eschborn, Germany: GTZ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fa, J. E., & Southwick, C. H. (1988). Ecology and behavior of food-enhanced primate groups. New York: Alan R. Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • FAO. (2005.) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005: Progress towards sustainable forest management. FAO Forestry Paper 147, Rome 320.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forthman-Quick, D. L. (1986). Activity budgets and the consumption of human foods in two troops of baboons, Papio anubis, at Gilgil Kenya. In J. C. Else & P. C. Lee (Eds.), Primate ecology and conservation (pp. 221–228). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordo, M. (2013). City vs. Forest: challenges to the survival of the pied tamarin, Saguinus bicolor, in the urban landscape of Manaus, Brazil. In L. K. Marsh & C. A. Chapman (Eds.), Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hagell, S., Williams-Guillen, K., Otterstrom, S., Spehar, S., & Gomez, C. (2013). Primate populations in fragmented tropical forest landscapes in Southwestern Nicaragua. In L. K. Marsh & C. A. Chapman (Eds.), Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, M. C., et al. (2013). High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science, 342, 850–853.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Henzi, S. P., Forshaw, N., Barrett, L., & Lusseau, D. (2013). Scalar dynamics in female vervet monkey cohorts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 368, 20120351.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Henzi, S. P., Lycett, J. E., & Weingril, T. (1997). Cohort size and the allocation of social effort by female mountain baboons. Animal Behaviour, 554, 1235–1243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horrocks, J. A., & Hunte, W. (1986). Sentinel behaviour in vervet monkeys: Who sees whom first. Animal Behaviour, 34, 1566–1568.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isbell, L. A., & Young, T. P. (1993). Social and ecological influences on activity budgets of vervet monkeys, and their implications for group living. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 32, 377–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaman, M. F., & Huffman, M. A. (2013). The effect of urban and rural habitats and resource type on activity budgets of commensal rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in Bangladesh. Primates, 54, 49–59.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones-Engel, L., & Engel, G. A. (2006). Disease risk analysis: A paradigm for using health-based data to inform primate conservation and public health—Introduction. American Journal of Primatology, 68, 851–854.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laurance, W. F., Sayer, J., & Cassman, K. G. (2014). Agriculture expansion and its impacts on tropical nature. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 29, 107–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, P. C. (1984). Ecological and social influences on development in vervet monkeys. PhD, University of Cambridge, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Marriott, B. M. (1988). Time budgets of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in a forest habitat in Nepal and on Cayo Santiago. In J. E. Fa & C. H. Southwick (Eds.), Ecology and behavior of food-enhanced primate groups (pp. 125–149). New York: Alan R. Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsh, L. K., & Chapman, C. A. (2013). Primates in fragments: Complexity and resilience. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mugume, S., Chapman, C. A., Isabirye-Basuta, G., & Otali, E. (2015). Can we rely on forest reserves for primate conservation? African Journal of Ecology, 53, 465–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naughton, L., Alix-Garcia, J., & Chapman, C. A. (2011). A decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda: Lessons for poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 13919–13924.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira, V. B., Linarea, A. M., Correa, G. L. C., & Chiarello, A. G. (2008). Predation on black chapuchin monkeys Cebus nigritus (Primates:Cebidae) by domestic dogs, Canis lupus familiaris (Carnivora: Canidae), in the Parque Estadual Serra do Brigadeiro, Minas Geral, Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Biologia, 25, 376–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasternak, G., Brown, L. R., Kienzle, S., Fuller, A., Barrett, L., & Henzi, S. P. (2013). Population ecology of vervet monkeys in a high altitude, semiarid riparian woodland. Koedoe, 55, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phalan, B., Bertzky, M., Butchart, S. H. M., Donald, P. F., Scharlemann, J. P. W., Stattersfield, A. J., et al. (2013). Crop expansion and conservation priorities in tropical countries. PLoS One, 8, e51759.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plumptre, A. J., & Reynolds, V. (1994). The effect of selective logging on the primate populations in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. Journal of Applied Ecology, 31, 631–641.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pozo-Montuy, G., Serio-Silva, J. C., Chapman, C. A., & Bonilla-Sánchez, Y. M. (2013). Resource use in a landscape matrix by an arboreal primate: Evidence of supplementation in Alouatta pigra. International Journal of Primatology, 34, 714–731.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramírez-Julián, R., Serio-Silva, J. C., & Chapman, C. A. (in prep). What adaptive behaviours are used by Alouatta pigra living in forest fragments? Primates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saj, T. L., Sicotte, P., & Paterson, J. D. (1999). Influence of human food consumption on the time budgets of vervets. International Journal of Primatology, 20, 977–994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Serio-Silva, J. C., Pozo-Montuy, G., & Bonilla-Sánchez, Y. M. (2006). Black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) inhabiting eucalyptus (Eucalyptus grandis) plantations in Tabasco, Mexico: Habitat use and questions to answer. American Journal of Primatology, 68, 35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stager, C. J., Westwood, J., Grzesik, D., & Cumming, B. F. (2005). A 5500-year environmental history of Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology, 218, 347–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker, T. T. (1967). Behaviour of vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops). California University Press Zoology, 82, 1–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker, T. T. (1975). The red colobus monkey (p. 311). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Struhsaker, T. T. (1976). A further decline in numbers of Amboseli vervet monkeys. Biotropica, 8, 211–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teichroeb, J. A., & Chapman, C. A. (2014). Sensory information and associative cures used in food detection by wild vervet monkeys. Animal Cognition, 17, 517–528.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Teichroeb, J. A., White, M. M. J., & Chapman, C. A.. Vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) within-group spatial positioning: dominants trade-off predation risk for increased higher food acquisition. International Journal of Primatology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh, J. (1983). Five new world primates. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaccaro, I., Chapman, C. A., Nyboer, E. A., Luke, M., Byekwaso, A., Morgan, C., et al. (2013). An interdisciplinary method to harmonizing ecology, economy, and co-management: Fisheries exploitation in Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. African Journal of Aquatic Science, 38, 97–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, S. J., & Muller-Landau, H. C. (2006). The future of tropical forest species. Biotropica, 38, 287–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by Canada Research Chairs Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Geographic, Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies, and the National Science Foundation. Permission to conduct this research was given by the National Council for Science and Technology and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. We would like to extend a special thanks to the field assistants; Matovu Ponsiano, Livingstone Katwere, and Maxine White. We thank Lauren Chapman, Cynthia Liu, and Kathleen Godfrey for helpful comments on the research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, McGill School of Environment, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, QC, Canada, H3A 2T7

    Colin A. Chapman Ph.D. & Kim Valenta Ph.D.

  2. Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY, 10460, USA

    Colin A. Chapman Ph.D.

  3. Makerere Biological Field Station, Fort Portal, 967, Kampala, Uganda

    Colin A. Chapman Ph.D. & Dennis Twinomugisha Ph.D.

  4. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, 104 Biological Sciences Building, Box 90383, Durham, NC, 27708-9976, USA

    Julie A. Teichroeb Ph.D.

  5. Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Raja Sengupta Ph.D. & Dipto Sarkar

  6. Department of Anthropology, Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Jessica M. Rothman Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Colin A. Chapman Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dennis Twinomugisha Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Julie A. Teichroeb Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kim Valenta Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Raja Sengupta Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Dipto Sarkar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Jessica M. Rothman Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colin A. Chapman Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Anthropology, University of Oregon, Bend, Oregon, USA

    Michel T. Waller

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chapman, C.A. et al. (2016). How Do Primates Survive Among Humans? Mechanisms Employed by Vervet Monkeys at Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. In: Waller, M. (eds) Ethnoprimatology. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30469-4_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation