Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Modeling ecological and social factors impacting the foraging decisions of mantled howler monkeys, Barro Colorado Island, Panama

这个项目的主要目标是量化的几个生态和社会因素的运动模式和空间觅食决策的八个连续的mantled吼猴群在巴拿马热带森林的相对影响。灵长目动物，特别是人类最明显的特征之一是非凡的学习和记忆能力。 许多灵长类动物学家指出，觅食的认知需求是这种智能的一个重要选择压力，将利用空间和时间上不规则的资源的能力与灵长类动物的生存和繁殖成功联系起来。 然而，尽管许多研究都集中在灵长类动物应该完成什么（即哪些食物比其他食物更“最佳”），但很少关注决定灵长类动物如何完成这一生存重要方面的因素。 本研究通过两种不同的方法来解决这一需求：首先，PI确定哪些空间因素，如景观结构，资源分布模式，以及邻近群体的位置是最重要的预测因子，在我们的研究地点巴罗科罗拉多岛，巴拿马的mantled吼猴群的空间使用。第二，PI开发新的模型，适用于运筹学，运输工程和搜索理论领域，可以分离出可预测的mantled吼猴运动模式。 这些模型将允许研究人员确定mantled吼猴是否使用基于规则的决策过程，这些决策过程类似于人类在决定移动路径时所记录的决策过程。 因此，从这项研究的结果将提供有价值的信息，决策过程是必不可少的灵长类动物的生存，这可能是一个主要的选择压力影响灵长类动物的evolution.This研究也带来了新的方法，体质人类学领域，并有几个更广泛的影响。 例如，这项研究将是第一个使用自动无线电遥测技术同时跟踪大量mantled howler猴群的研究，从而对该物种的群体间空间相互作用产生重要的见解。 此外，本计画所发展之运动模式，将整合其他人文地理学相关领域所建立之方法，以应用于灵长类生态学。然后，这些模型将通过出版物和在线教学界面随时可用，以使灵长类动物行为的学生和研究人员了解这种新方法在其他类群灵长类动物行为研究中的实用性。 最后，来自美国和巴拿马的现场助理将接受在生态学，保护和自然人类学方面具有巨大效用的各种技术（例如远程无线电遥测和地理信息系统）的培训。

The primary goal of this project is to quantify the relative impact of several ecological and social factors upon the movement patterns and spatial foraging decisions of eight contiguous mantled howler monkey groups in a Panamanian tropical forest. One of the most defining characteristics of the primate order and humans in particular is the extraordinary capacity for learning and retention. Many primatologists have pointed to the cognitive demands of foraging as an important selective pressure for this intelligence, linking the ability to exploit resources that are patchy in space and time to primate survival and reproductive success. However, though much research has concentrated on what primates should accomplish (i.e. what dietary items are more "optimal" than others), less attention has been focused upon the factors that determine how primates accomplish this essential aspect of their survival. This study addresses this need through two distinct approaches: First, the PIs determine which spatial factors such as landscape structure, resource distribution patterns, and locations of neighboring groups are the most significant predictors of mantled howler monkey group space use at our study site on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Second, the PIs develop novel models adapted from the fields of operations research, transportation engineering, and search theory that can isolate predictable regularities in mantled howler monkey movement patterns. These models will permit researchers to determine if mantled howler monkeys are using rule-based decision making processes that are similar to those documented for humans when deciding upon movement paths. Thus, the results from this research will provide valuable information on a decision-making process that is essential to primate survival and which may be a major selective pressure influencing primate evolution.This research also brings novel methodologies to the field of physical anthropology and has several broader impacts. For example, this study will be the first to simultaneously track large numbers of mantled howler monkey groups with automated radio telemetry technology, yielding important insights into inter-group spatial interactions for this species. In addition, the movement models developed in this project will synthesize methods established in other fields relevant to human geography for novel application to primate ecology. These models will then be made readily available through publications and through an online teaching interface in order to expose students and researchers in primate behavior to the utility of this new method for primate behavioral studies on other taxa. Last, field assistants from both the US and Panama will be trained in various technologies of great utility in ecology, conservation, and physical anthropology (e.g. remote radio-telemetry and Geographic Information Systems).