Nutritional ecology and predator sensitive foraging in sympatric Lemur catta and propithecus verreauxi verreauxi in spiny and scrub forest habitats in southern Madagascar

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The proposed project expands upon my previous work related to costs and benefits of group living in primates, this time examining sex and reproductive state differences in diet in co-existing ring-tailed lemurs and Verreaux's sifaka in a scrub and spiny forest habitats in southern Madagascar, and investigating predator-sensitive foraging strategies in these species. Extreme resource seasonality in southern Madagascar has led to the evolution of marked reproductive synchrony, with high energetic demands placed upon reproductive females at a time when food is scarce. To determine how such females cope with these demands, I will investigate whether nutrient intake, time spent feeding, and amount of food ingested differs between reproductive females and non-reproductive group members both within and between species. The diet of each species contains high amounts of tannins, which can potentially benefit reproductive females because of its anti-abortive, anti-parasitic, and lactation promoting properties, thus, I will also test whether sex and reproductive state differences exist in tannin consumption. Because both species are vulnerable to predation in open scrub and spiny forest habitats, I will examine effects of group size and reproductive state on predator sensitive foraging strategies (e.g. vigilance and group cohesion patterns while foraging in different sized groups and in different areas of the habitat). Results from this project can be compared with similar studies of the same species in vastly different gallery forest habitat, and can elucidate if and how habitat variation influences nutritional and foraging differences between reproductive and non-reproductive animals both within and between populations. Information from the study can also help explain the evolution of feeding and foraging patterns in sympatric mammalian species, particularly in harsh seasonal environments such as Madagascar's scrub and spiny forests, and how such patterns may ultimately affect reproductive success.