A ten-year demographic history of a population of howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in a fragmented landscape in Mexico
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Abstract
Long-term field studies of primates are critical for our understanding of life history and the processes driving changes in demography. Here, we present the first long-term demographic data for the northernmost population of the mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata). We followed 10 groups of howler monkeys living in a highly fragmented landscape between 2000 and 2011. Forest fragmentation did not seem to play a major role in the dynamics of our population, as the population size remained relatively stable over the 10-year study period, and birth rates and inter-birth intervals were comparable to those of howler monkeys at other sites. Moreover, dispersal events were commonplace, particularly secondary dispersal (individuals emigrating from groups that they had previously immigrated into), which supports the suggestion that this may be an important component of the reproductive strategy of the mantled howler monkey. Finally, we found a marked effect of seasonality on the population dynamics of our study population. In particular, the period of lowest temperatures and resource scarcity between November and March was associated with higher mortality and reproductive inhibition, while the period of resource abundance between April and May was associated with the majority of conceptions and weaning of offspring. This, in turn, could be influencing dispersal patterns in our study area, as male howler monkeys seem to time some of their immigrations into new groups to coincide with the start of the period of higher fertility, while females preferentially joined new groups several months before the onset of this period.
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2015. A ten-year demographic history of a population of howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata) living in a fragmented landscape in Mexico. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e800v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.800v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
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This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
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Timetable of monthly visits
Timetable of 454 monthly visits (dark grey) to 10 groups of mantled howler monkeys in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, between 2000 and 2011.
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Jurgi Cristóbal Azkarate conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Jacob Charles Dunn conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Cristina Domingo Balcells conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Joaquim Veà Baró conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Animal Ethics
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
This study is based on observational data and there was no direct interaction with the study subjects. All research adhered to the American Society of Primatologists Principles for the Ethical Treatment of Non‐Human Primates and to the legal requirements of Mexico. We also obtained approval from the ethics committees of the University of Barcelona and Universidad Veracruza.
Field Study Permissions
The following information was supplied relating to field study approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
We were granted access to the study site by local communities, landowners, and the Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve, part of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas of Mexico (CONANP).
Funding
The first census in 2000 was supported by the Zientzi Politikarako Zuzendaritza of the Basque Government (JCA). Subsequent studies that provided data for our analyses were funded by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (PB98-1270, SEJ2005-01562), Fundación BBVA, The Isaac Newton Trust (JD), the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (CDB) and Barcelona Zoo (CDB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
