Howling by the river: howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) communication in an anthropogenically-altered riparian forest in Costa Rica
Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Anthropology and Museum Studies
Publication Date
12-3-2019
Abstract
The ways that forest edges may affect animal vocalization behaviour are poorly understood. We investigated the effects of various types of edge habitat on the loud calls (howls) of a folivorous-frugivorous primate species, Alouatta palliata, with reference to the ecological resource defence hypothesis, which predicts that males howl to defend vegetation resources. We tested this hypothesis across four forest zones — interior, riparian, anthropogenic, and combined forest edges — in a riparian forest fragment in Costa Rica. We predicted vegetation and howling would differ between forest zones, with riparian and interior zones showing the highest values and anthropogenic edge the lowest. Our results indicated that vegetation was richer and howling longer in riparian and interior zones compared to combined and anthropogenic edges, supporting the resource defence hypothesis and providing some of the first evidence in animal communication scholarship for differences in behavioural edge effects between natural riparian and anthropogenic edges.
Recommended Citation
Bolt, L. M., Russell, D. G., Coggeshall, E. M. C., Jacobson, Z. S., Merrigan-Johnson, C., & Schreier, A. L. (2019). Howling by the river: howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) communication in an anthropogenically-altered riparian forest in Costa Rica. Behaviour, 157(1), 77–100. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-00003582
Journal
Behaviour
Rights
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020
Comments
This article was originally published in Behaviour. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.
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