Fecal contamination, parasite risk, and waterhole use by wild animals in a dry deciduous forest
Fecal contamination, parasite risk, and waterhole use by wild animals in a dry deciduous forest
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DOI：
10.1007/s00265-019-2769-6
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发表时间：
2019-11-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Nunn, Charles L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Amoroso, Caroline R.;Kappeler, Peter M.;Nunn, Charles L.
水坑对动物在干燥栖息地的生存至关重要，但也是寄生虫暴露的潜在来源。避免使用粪便可有效降低寄生虫传播风险，但也可能带来成本，包括为寻找污染较少的资源而走更远的路。我们研究了影响水依赖性野生红额狐猴（Eulemur rufifrons）选择水坑的因素，包括能量消耗和寄生虫躲避之间的权衡因素。研究是在马达加斯加西部的一个干燥的落叶林中进行的，其特点是在当地明显的旱季缺水。我们测试了粪便污染是否会影响狐猴对水的选择，通过一个实验，让狐猴选择干净的水和被粪便污染的水，通过煮沸消毒。我们还监测了狐猴对天然水坑的使用情况，以确定同种粪便污染和旅行距离如何影响狐猴对水坑的使用。在实验中，红额狐猴对干净的水表现出强烈的偏好。在自然水坑中，我们发现狐猴先前的访问频率与粪便污染之间存在显著的负交互作用，并且随着粪便污染的增加，狐猴返回水坑的时间更长，这表明狐猴更频繁，更快地返回污染较少的水坑。我们还发现狐猴优先考虑较短的旅行距离，而不是避免粪便。总之，这些结果表明，红额狐猴在选择天然水坑时，通过避免高度污染的水坑，尤其是当水坑等距时，行使了避免寄生虫风险的偏好。因此，粪便污染和旅行距离影响了缺水栖息地的水选择，对栖息地的利用和生态相互作用有潜在的影响。
Waterholes are critically important to animal survival in dry habitats but are also a potential source of parasite exposure. Avoiding feces may effectively reduce parasite transmission risk, but may also impose costs, including greater travel distances to locate less contaminated resources. We studied factors influencing wild, water-dependent red-fronted lemurs' (Eulemur rufifrons) selection of waterholes, including factors related to trade-offs between energy expenditure and parasite avoidance. Research took place in a dry deciduous forest in western Madagascar characterized by water scarcity during a pronounced local dry season. We tested whether fecal contamination influenced lemurs' water selection with an experiment that gave lemurs a choice between clean and fecally contaminated water disinfected by boiling. We also monitored lemurs' use of natural waterholes to determine how conspecific fecal contamination and travel distance influenced lemurs' use of waterholes. Red-fronted lemurs displayed a strong preference for clean water in the experiment. At natural waterholes, we found a significant negative interaction between frequency of previous lemur visits and fecal contamination, and a longer return time to waterholes with increasing fecal contamination, revealing that lemurs returned to less contaminated waterholes more frequently and sooner. We also found that lemurs prioritized shorter travel distances over feces avoidance. Together, these results suggest that red-fronted lemurs exercised their preferences for avoiding parasite risk in their natural waterhole choices by avoiding highly contaminated waterholes, especially when waterholes were equidistant. Thus, fecal contamination and travel distance influence water selection in water-scarce habitats, with potential impacts on habitat use and ecological interactions.