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The 30-Year Blues: What We Know and Don’t Know About Life History, Group Size, and Group Fission of Blue Monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, Kenya

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Abstract

Long-term studies uniquely allow researchers to investigate phenomena that play out over long periods, as well as rare events that accumulate slowly into a respectable sample. This chapter takes both approaches in reporting on a 30-year study of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis stuhlmanni), reviewing life-history data mainly for females, which can live up to 33 years, and presenting data related to group fission, a rare event. Compared to close relatives, blue monkeys appear to have an exceptionally slow life history, related to low levels of mortality in forest environments. Group fissions show variable patterns, occurring at variable group sizes, and usually involving the splitting of a few family units, including mothers and young daughters. Ecological factors such as feeding competition do not appear to explain why fission occurs, and females do not seem to increase reproductive rates, improve infant survival or reduce the likelihood of male takeovers after fission.

Please note the erratum to this chapter at the end of the book.

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22514-7_20

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22514-7_20

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research has come from the National Science Foundation (NSF-GF, SBR 95–23623, BCS 98–08273 and 05–54747), L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, Wenner Gren Foundation, Columbia University, the University of California, AAAS and the Ford Foundation. I am very grateful to the government of Kenya for research clearance, and the University of Nairobi Zoology Department, Institute of Primate Research, National Museums of Kenya, Moi University Department of Wildlife Management, and Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology Biological Sciences Department for local sponsorship. I warmly acknowledge the local forestry officials and personnel for their on-the-ground help of many sorts. This long-term study would have been impossible without the fieldwork contributions of very many people, who added in large and small ways to the database. For their help over relatively long periods, I particularly thank P. Akelo, M. Atamba, S. Brace, B. Brogan, C. Brogan, S. Chowdhury, N. Cohen, S. Förster, M. Gathua, A. Fulghum, J. M. Gathua, J. Glick, S.F. Ihwagi, Kalabata, J. Kirika, K. McFadden, K. MacLean, S. Maisonneuve, C. Makalasia, S. Mbugua, C. Mitchell, N. Mitchell, S. Mugatha, C. Oduor, C. Okoyo, J. Omondi, B. Pav, K. Pazol, A. Piel, S. Roberts, T. Rowell, E. Shikanga, M. Tsingalia, and E. Widava. Many others have contributed over shorter time frames in the field, or to data management in the USA. I particularly thank N. Cohen, S. Mason, and K. Ross for contributing data on movement and activity patterns in groups of different size, K. Klass for her work on dominance hierarchies, and S. Chowdhury for her work on life-history data. J. Fuller kindly prepared Fig. 13.1. I thank T. Sleator for formatting all figures, and tolerating years of my field time.

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  1. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Marina Cords

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  1. Marina Cords
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Correspondence to Marina Cords .

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  1. , Dept. of Behavioral Ecology, University of Göttingen, Kellnerweg 6, Göttingen, 37077, Germany

    Peter M. Kappeler

  2. Dept. Anthropology, Yale University, Sachem Street 10, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    David P. Watts

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Cords, M. (2012). The 30-Year Blues: What We Know and Don’t Know About Life History, Group Size, and Group Fission of Blue Monkeys in the Kakamega Forest, Kenya. In: Kappeler, P., Watts, D. (eds) Long-Term Field Studies of Primates. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22514-7_13

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