Inter-species relationships of African Primates in the tropical lowland and montane forests

在本研究项目中，进行了以下四项研究活动；1. 2.扎伊尔和刚果同域大猩猩和黑猩猩的比较生态学；热带森林结构及灵长类动物群落与果实生产相互作用的研究[j]。3 .扎伊尔蠓种的形态学研究。两名扎伊尔研究人员赴日本的邀请。在热带森林中，同域大猩猩和黑猩猩的摄食生态存在差异。与扎伊尔的大猩猩相比，刚果大猩猩最大的特点是它们经常到沼泽里去喂水草。在扎伊尔的山地森林中，观察了食肉行为和工具使用行为。通过粪便分析表明，大猩猩的药用植物使用与坦桑尼亚黑猩猩的药用植物使用相似。利用超长样带法对扎伊尔研究点的森林进行了调查，发现该研究点的森林是由优势种较少的小森林斑块组成的。然而，在刚果的研究地点，这三种植被类型被清楚地发现。从种子分散的角度对三种水果生产类型进行了分类。在共同进化的背景下，果实的特征似乎与它们的种子传播者的行为相结合。研究了尾猿脑大小和体重的异速分布。姆万扎于1990年被邀请到日本研究同域类人猿的生态学。M. MWANGA先生也于1991年应邀到日本研究颈猿种的形态。

In this research project, the following four research activities were conducted ; 1. the comparative ecology of the sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees in Zaire and Congo, 2. the study of forest structure of tropical forests and interactions between primate community and fruit production, 3. morphological studies of Cercopithecus species in Zaire, and 4. invitations of two researchers from Zaire to Japan.In the tropical forests, the sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees were different each other in their feeding ecology. The most characteristic feature of gorillas in Congo in comparison with those in Zaire was that they used to go inside the swamp to feed water plants.In the montane forest of Zaire, the meat eating behavior and tool using behaviors were observed. The medical plant usage by gorillas were suggested by fecal analysis, which was similar to the medical plant usage of chimpanzees in Tanzania.It was found that the forest of the study site in Zaire was composed of small forest patches with few dominant species by using a super-long transect method. However, in the study site of Congo, the three vegetation types were clearly found. The three types of fruits production were categorized concerning seed dispersion. The features of the fruits were seemed to combined with the behavior of their seed dispersors in the context of coevolution.The allometry of brain size and body weight among Cercopithecus were studied.Dr. N. MWANZA was invited in 1990 to Japan to study the ecology of sympatric apes. Mr. M. MWANGA were also invited in 1991 to Japan to study the morphology of Cercopithecus species.