Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Seasonal habitats
- Part III Seasonality and behavioral ecology
- 3 The influence of seasonality on primate diet and ranging
- 4 Seasonality in predation risk: varying activity periods in lemurs and other primates
- 5 Physiological adaptations to seasonality in nocturnal primates
- 6 Seasonality and long-term change in a savanna environment
- 7 Day length seasonality and the thermal environment
- 8 Seasonality in hunting by non-human primates
- 9 Human hunting seasonality
- Part IV Seasonality, reproduction, and social organization
- Part V Seasonality and community ecology
- Part VI Seasonality and human evolution
- Index
- References
5 - Physiological adaptations to seasonality in nocturnal primates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Seasonal habitats
- Part III Seasonality and behavioral ecology
- 3 The influence of seasonality on primate diet and ranging
- 4 Seasonality in predation risk: varying activity periods in lemurs and other primates
- 5 Physiological adaptations to seasonality in nocturnal primates
- 6 Seasonality and long-term change in a savanna environment
- 7 Day length seasonality and the thermal environment
- 8 Seasonality in hunting by non-human primates
- 9 Human hunting seasonality
- Part IV Seasonality, reproduction, and social organization
- Part V Seasonality and community ecology
- Part VI Seasonality and human evolution
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The current geographic distribution of primates is confined largely to tropical and subtropical regions, where they have colonized a variety of habitats. The majority of primate taxa inhabit tropical forests with little annual fluctuation in environmental conditions. Some species, however, live in habitats characterized by pronounced seasonal fluctuations in climate and or resource availability. These primates tend to live at relatively high latitudes or altitudes, or both. Primates in such seasonal habitats provide an opportunity to identify behavioral and physiological adaptations that enable them to cope with fluctuating environmental conditions. Furthermore, it is interesting to ask whether and how schedules of growth and reproduction are adapted to maximize individual reproductive success under such seasonal conditions, because they may have to be traded off against maintenance requirements during the lean part of the year.
Primates living in seasonal environments exhibit a number of specific behavioral, ecological, and physiological adaptations. For example, during the climatically and or energetically most stressful time of year, they may reduce energy expenditure, e.g. by reducing overall activity, and many have scheduled periods of growth and infant weaning to coincide with seasons of relative abundance. Behavioral and physiological mechanisms of thermoregulation play especially important roles in maintaining homeostasis in seasonally stressed primates. These mechanisms are importantly influenced by circadian activity patterns because diurnal and nocturnal animals are exposed to fundamentally different constraints and options in this respect.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Seasonality in PrimatesStudies of Living and Extinct Human and Non-Human Primates, pp. 129 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
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