Doctoral Dissertation Research: Primate behavioral adaptations to water stress

水的需求塑造了所有动物与环境相互作用的行为和方式。获得足够的清洁水对于哺乳期哺乳动物母亲保持水分特别重要。许多灵长类母亲在很长一段时间内产生稀释的乳汁，这可能对维持哺乳期女性的水平衡提出挑战。这个博士论文研究项目探讨了野生雌性灵长类动物的水合状态和水消耗行为，并全面了解了可能影响其水平衡的多个变量。这项研究还记录了水的质量，可用性和位置在频繁的人与动物相互作用的背景下，因此对公共卫生具有重要意义。了解水合作用，它如何根据生态环境而变化，以及灵长类动物如何满足其水需求，对保护面临不断变化的环境的濒危种群具有重要意义。该项目提供了许多培训机会，并支持能力建设。研究结果通过科学期刊、社交媒体和多种环境下的教育工作进行分享。该项目测试了一个假设，即哺乳期雌性灵长类动物比其群体中的其他个体更容易受到水的压力，并改变其行为以增加其饮水量。它还测试的假设，高级别的女性是缓冲从哺乳相关的水的压力，由于他们获得更好的质量的食物和水相比，低级别的女性。该项目绘制了灵长类动物栖息地的水供应和质量的时空变化，包括食物和独立水。通过行为观察和营养数据，研究人员估计了哺乳期女性的饮水量。使用收集的生理和行为数据，结果阐明了水平衡如何在女性的基础上，他们的生殖状态，优势地位，水质和可用性在他们的家范围内变化。该项目整合了新的行为、生理、生态、时空和营养数据，以探索濒危灵长类物种的水平衡和对水化压力的行为适应。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Water requirements shape the behaviors and ways in which all animals interact with their environment. Access to sufficient clean water is especially important for maintaining hydration in lactating mammalian mothers. Many primate mothers produce a dilute milk over an extended period, which may present challenges to maintaining water balance in lactating females. This doctoral dissertation research project explores hydration status and water consumption behaviors in wild female primates and provides a comprehensive look at the multiple variables that can influence their water balance. This study also documents water quality, availability, and location in the context of frequent human-animal interactions and therefore has important implications for public health. Understanding hydration, how it varies based on ecological contexts, as well as how primates meet their water requirements has implications for the conservation of endangered populations that face changing environments. This project provides numerous training opportunities and supports capacity building. Results are shared through scientific journals, social media, and educational efforts in multiple settings.This project tests the hypothesis that lactating female primates are more water stressed than other individuals in their group and alter their behavior to increase their water intake. It also tests the hypothesis that high-ranking females are buffered from lactation-related water stress due to their increased access to better quality food and water compared to low-ranking females. This project maps spatiotemporal variation in water availability and quality, both in food and free-standing water, across the primates’ habitat. Using behavioral observations and nutritional data, the researchers estimate water intake by lactating females. Using the collected physiological and behavioral data, the results clarify how water balance varies in females based on their reproductive state, dominance rank, and the water quality and availability in their home range. This project integrates new behavioral, physiological, ecological, spatiotemporal, and nutritional data to explore water balance and behavioral adaptations to hydration stress in an endangered primate species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.