Plasticity of physiological parameters and adaptations to extreme seasonality in Galago moholi (Galagidae), a South African primate.

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Physiological parameters are much more flexible within a species than previously thought. This becomes particularly obvious during physiologically demanding times, such as cool seasons with low food availability. However, animals can often only show the whole spectrum of their physiological and behavioural possibilities in the field, where they are not restricted by laboratory conditions. The South African primate Galago moholi offers an especially suitable system to investigate this physiological plasticity and adaptations to extreme seasonality in the field: G. moholi lives in highly seasonal savannah and additionally offers the exceptional opportunity of comparing differing physiological, ecological and ethological strategies in a “natural experiment” because of variable breeding patterns, that are linked to different seasonal conditions.The proposed study aims to investigate the plasticity of physiological parameters (especially of thermoregulation and energy budgets) as well as other adaptations to extreme seasonality (feeding ecology and behaviour) in G. moholi, using state-of-the-art methods of physiology, that have become available only recently (measurement of body temperature and metabolic rate in the field) combined with well established ecological field methods. The understanding of these processes allows to test hypotheses about the ultimate factors leading to the evolution (or the loss) of torpor in primates and additionally can help to understand the prerequisites that were relevant for the colonisation of Madagascar by primates.