Determinance of abundance and social organization in folivorous primates

生态学中的一个基本问题是确定影响动物密度的因素，随着需要为受威胁物种制定明智的管理计划，这个问题的重要性已经具有了新的意义。 对于灵长类动物来说，这个问题至关重要，因为热带森林正在经历快速的转变。 同样，行为生态学的一个基本问题是理解生态条件如何塑造动物的社会组织。 我的长期目标是在行为和生态学的界面上工作，以发展关于食叶灵长类动物（1）丰度和（2）社会组织的生态决定因素的一般原则。 我提出了两个新项目的基础上，我的长期（16年以上）现场在基巴莱国家公园，乌干达。 (1)首先，学生，博士后，我将测试营养和疾病如何协同作用的假设，通过量化个体属性之间的联系来影响动物种群，如优势，营养压力和个体寄生虫负担，以及健康指数，如压力（粪便皮质醇），再感染概率，生存和繁殖。 (2)第二，我们的长期研究已经揭示了证据表明，目前的食叶动物社会组织的社会生态模型是错误的假设，因此，模型需要重新评估。 我们将对大量的红疣猴进行单独标记，以提供适当测试来自这些模型的预测的方法。 该项目在培训加拿大和乌干达的HQP方面投入了大量精力，将成果应用于保护工作，并支持在偏远实地进行长期研究。

A fundamental issue in ecology is identifying factors influencing animal density, and the importance of this issue has taken on new significance with the need to develop informed management plans for threatened species.  With primates, this issue is critical, because tropical forests are undergoing rapid transformation.  Similarly, a fundamental question in behavioural ecology is understanding how ecological conditions shape the social organizations of animals.  My long-term goal is to work at the interface of behaviour and ecology to develop general principles concerning ecological determinants of (1) abundance and (2) social organization of leaf-eating primates.  I propose two new projects based at my long-term (16+ years) field site in Kibale National Park, Uganda.  (1) First, students, post-docs, and I will test hypotheses of how nutrition and disease can act synergistically to influence animal populations by quantifying connections between attributes of individuals, such as dominance, nutritional stress, and individual parasite burden, and indices of fitness, such as stress (fecal cortisol), re-infection probability, survival, and reproduction.  (2) Second, our long-term research has revealed evidence that suggest that current socioecological models of folivore social organization are making erroneous assumptions; and thus, the models need to be re-evaluated.  We will individually mark a large number of red colobus monkeys to provide the means to appropriately test predictions derived from these models.  This project places a great deal of effort on training both Canadian and Ugandan HQP, in applying results to conservation efforts, and supporting long-term research at a remote field site.