Doctoral Dissertation Research: Is Habitat Change a Cause of Demographic Collapse for the Milne-Edwards Sifaka?

环境变化会增加或减少灵长类食物的丰富度、可获得性和质量。然而，关于栖息地干扰对灵长类种群的影响，科学界收到了相互矛盾的结果。本研究将探讨栖息地干扰对马达加斯加拉诺马法纳国家公园大型热带雨林狐猴Milne-Edwards sifaka(Propithecus Diadema Edwardsi)生态和行为的影响。该项目将结合多种方法，研究：1)食物种类的可获得性和丰富性，2)动物密度，3)食物选择和化学成分，4)活动预算和活动模式，5)原始林和受干扰林地的原生动物群体之间的社会结构和行为差异。这项为期一年的研究将展示哪些资源对Propithecus的生存很重要，这种分类群采用哪些策略来最大化生存和繁殖成功。目前，科学文献很少涉及栖息地干扰对动物种群的影响的比较研究。然而，由于栖息地的干扰和破坏正在以快速加速的速度改变森林，了解和预测这些变化的影响的能力将塑造世界生物多样性的未来。考虑到它们庞大的体型和缓慢的生活史，准确的种群密度估计和了解栖息地干扰的影响的能力将是未来保护和管理计划以及Propithecus和许多其他热带森林物种生存的关键。由于RNP是一个自然实验，通过它来研究栖息地变化的影响，该项目期间收集的数据将有助于评估文献中提出的许多关于栖息地干扰的理论论点，并加深我们对动物与其环境之间关系的理解。该项目将为马达加斯加国家公园管理局(ANGAP)提供急需的信息，了解森林和动物群落如何应对栖息地变化和森林更新。这些信息将有助于马达加斯加境内保护区的选择和管理，并为评估这些地区的健康状况提供新的信息。关于狐猴密度的数据将有助于改进狐猴数量的估计，因为本项目的估计将考虑到栖息地干扰的程度。这些数据对保护工作至关重要，因为这些数据将提醒ANGAP和国际社会注意高风险地区。该项目还将扩大当地开展科学研究和保护教育计划的能力，因为10名当地研究助理和4名马达加斯加研究生将积极参与研究计划。

Environmental changes can increase or decrease primate food abundance, availability, and quality. Yet, the scientific community has received conflicting results as to the effect that habitat disturbance has on primate populations. This study will investigate the effects of habitat disturbance on the ecology and behavior of a large-bodied rainforest lemur, the Milne-Edwards sifaka (Propithecus diadema edwardsi) in Ranomafana National Park (RNP), Madagascar. Using a combination of methodologies, this project will investigate how: 1) food species availability and abundance, 2) animal densities, 3) diet selection and chemical content, 4) activity budgets and ranging patterns, and 5) social structure and behavior differ between groups of Propithecus within primary and disturbed forest sites. This year-long study will demonstrate which resources are important for Propithecus survival, the strategies that this taxon employs to maximize survival and reproductive success. Currently, the scientific literature contains very few comparative studies addressing the effects of habitat disturbance on animal populations. However, as habitat disturbance and destruction are altering forests at a rapidly accelerating pace, the ability to understand and predict the impact of these changes will shape the future of the world's biodiversity. Given their large body size and slow life history, accurate population density estimates and the ability to understand the effects of habitat disturbance will be key to future conservation and management plans, and the survival of Propithecus and many other tropical forest species. As RNP represents a natural experiment, through which to study the effects of habitat change, the data collected during this project will help to evaluate many of the theoretical arguments on habitat disturbance that have been proposed in the literature and increase our understanding of the relationship between animals and their environments.This project will provide Madagascar's National Park Service (ANGAP) with much needed information on the ways that forests and animal communities respond to habitat change and forest regeneration. Such information will be useful in the selection and management of protected areas within Madagascar, and provide new information with which the health of these areas can be assessed. Data on lemur densities will help to refine lemur population estimates, as estimates in this project will take level of habitat disturbance into account. Such data are vital to conservation efforts, as these data will alert ANGAP and the international community to high risk areas. This project will also expand local capacity to conduct scientific research and conservation education programs, as ten local research assistants and four Malagasy graduate students will participate actively in the research program.