ROW/RPG: Ecology of Limb Use Among the Neotropical Procyonidae

食肉动物科的哺乳动物都生活在新大陆，在某种程度上都是树栖动物(爬树)。在中美洲和南美洲的同一片森林中，多达五个活着的属中有四个共存，但人们对它们的栖息地要求或森林在它们之间的分配方式知之甚少。P.I.研究了这些动物的肢体解剖和肢体运动学，试图了解生物力学解决方案的多样性，包括食物获取、躲避捕食者和通过复杂的三维栖息地的运动等问题。这些研究路线导致了几个假设，涉及原水母的运动模式、肢体比例和食物处理行为的功能和生态意义，这些都需要实地工作来测试。对肌肉结构的研究和博物馆标本的测量不足以阐明该分类单元辐射成广泛的适应类型。这项计划拨款旨在调查定位、无线电追踪和捕获鲜为人知的原生动物的可行性，以获得(1)野外活动模式和栖息地使用的数据，(2)野外和实验室条件下野生动物的肢体使用行为(运动和食物处理)，以及(3)移动能力和食物处理能力的差异在多大程度上阻止了原水母属和物种在栖息地使用上的重叠。

The mammals in the carnivore family Procyonidae all live in the New World and all are arboreal (tree-climbing) to some extent. Up to four of the five living genera coexist in the same forests in Central and South America, but little is known about their habitat requirements or the way the forest is apportioned among them. The P.I. has studied the limb anatomy and limb kinematics of these animals in an attempt to understand the diversity of biomechanical solutions to be problems of food acquisition, escape from predators, and movement through a complex, three-dimensional habitat. These lines of inquiry have led to several hypotheses regarding the functional and ecological significance of procyonid locomotor patterns, limb proportions, and food-handling behaviors that require field work to test. Studies of muscle structure and measurement of museum specimens are not sufficient to elucidate the radiation of this taxon into a wide range of adaptive types. This planning grant is designed to investigate the feasibility of locating, radio-tracking, and capturing the lesser known procyonids to obtain data on (1) movement patterns and habitat use in the field, (2) limb use behaviors (locomotion and food handling) of wild animals under field and laboratory conditions, and (3) the extent to which differences in locomotion and food-handling abilities prevent overlap in habitat use by procyonid genera and species.