Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Behavioral Ecology of Chimpanzees Living in a Dry Area, Ugalla, Tanzania

这个项目的重点是生活在坦桑尼亚汤威东部森林保护区乌加拉地区的黑猩猩的生态和行为。乌加拉是已知黑猩猩生存的最干燥的环境之一，它与许多为早期人类重建的古环境有相似之处。长期以来，人们一直认为，生活在干旱地区的黑猩猩是早期原始人行为和生态建模的重要数据来源，但对这类人群的研究很少。这项研究试图找出影响黑猩猩在哪里筑巢以及它们如何利用栖息地的因素。由于乌加拉的黑猩猩不习惯人类的观察，也不提供食物，所以研究方法不需要直接观察这些猿类。研究人员将绘制黑猩猩巢穴的地图以及它们存在的其他迹象（食物残渣、粪便），并研究它们使用的资源（食物、水、筑巢可用的树木）的分布。黑猩猩可获得的果实的数量和季节分布数据将通过监测已知被黑猩猩食用或可能被黑猩猩食用的单个树种来获得。此外，黑猩猩的饮食数据将通过分析粪便以及从巢穴收集的毛发中碳和氮的含量来获得。从这项研究中获得的数据将与其他黑猩猩种群以及其他类人猿的数据进行比较。将这些结果与早期人类栖息地使用的考古证据进行比较也很重要。

This project focuses on the ecology and behavior of chimpanzees living in the Ugalla area of The Tongwe East Forest Reserve in Tanzania. Ugalla is one of the driest environments in which chimpanzees are known to exist and it shares similarities with many of the paleoenvironments reconstructed for early hominids. It has long been proposed that chimpanzees living in dry areas are an important source of data for modeling the behavior and ecology of early hominids, but very little research has been conducted on such populations. This study attempts to discern the factors that influence where the chimpanzees nest and how they use their habitat. Since the chimpanzees at Ugalla are not habituated to human observers and are not provided with food, the study methods require no direct observation of these apes. Maps of chimpanzee nests as well as other signs of their presence (feeding remains, feces) will be constructed, and the distribution of the resources they use (food, water, available trees for nesting) will be studied. Data on the amount and seasonal distribution of the fruit available to the chimpanzees will be obtained by monitoring individual trees of species known to be eaten or possibly eaten by the chimpanzees. In addition, data on the chimpanzees' diet will be obtained by analyzing feces and the contents of carbon and nitrogen present in hair collected from nests. The data obtained from this study will be compared with that for other chimpanzee populations as well as for other great apes. It will also be important to compare these results against the archaeological evidence for early hominid habitat use.