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165 results for “baboon”
Accelerated reproduction is not an adaptive response to early life adversity in wild baboons
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>In humans and other long-lived species, harsh conditions in early life often lead to profound differences in adult life expectancy. In response, natural selection is expected to accelerate the timing and pace of reproduction in individuals who experience some forms of early life adversity. However, the adaptive benefits of reproductive acceleration following early adversity remain untested. Here we test a recent version of this theory, the internal predictive adaptive response (iPAR) model, by assessing for the first time whether accelerating reproduction following early life adversity leads to higher lifetime reproductive success. We do so by leveraging 48 years of continuous, individual-based data from wild female baboons in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya, including prospective, longitudinal data on early life adversity, reproductive pace, and lifetime reproductive success.We find that while adversity in early life led to dramatically shorter lifespans, individuals who experiencedearly adversity didnot accelerate their reproduction compared to those who did not experience early adversity. Further, while accelerated reproduction predicted increased lifetime reproductive success overall, these benefits were not specific to females who experienced early life adversity. Instead, females only benefited from reproductive acceleration if they also led long lives. Our results call into question the theory that accelerated reproduction is an adaptive response to early life adversityin baboons and other long-lived species.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
Data from: Exaggerated sexual swellings and male mate choice in primates: testing the reliable indicator hypothesis in the Amboseli baboons
The paradigm of competitive males vying to influence female mate choice has been repeatedly upheld, but, increasingly, studies also report competitive females and choosy males. One female trait that is commonly proposed to influence male mate choice is the exaggerated sexual swelling displayed by females of many Old World primate species. The reliable indicator hypothesis posits that females use the exaggerated swellings to compete for access to mates, and that the swellings advertise variation in female fitness. We tested the two main predictions of this hypothesis in a wild population of baboons (Papio cynocephalus). First, we examined the effect of swelling size on the probability of mate guarding ('consortship') by the highest-ranking male and the behaviour of those males that trailed consortships ('follower males'). Second, we asked whether a female's swelling size predicted several fitness measures. We found that high-ranking males did not prefer females with larger swellings (when controlling for cycle number and conception) and that females with larger swellings did not have higher reproductive success. Our study, the only complete test of the reliable indicator hypothesis in a primate population, rejects the idea that female baboons compete for mates by advertising heritable fitness differences. Furthermore, we found unambiguous evidence that males biased their mating decisions in favour of females who had experienced more sexual cycles since their most recent pregnancy. Thus, rather than tracking the potential differences in fitness between females, male baboons appear to track and target the potential for a given reproductive opportunity to result in fertilization.
Data from: Cumulative early life adversity predicts longevity in wild baboons
In humans and other animals, harsh circumstances in early life predict morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Multiple adverse conditions are thought to be especially toxic, but this hypothesis has rarely been tested in a prospective, longitudinal framework, especially in long-lived mammals. Here we use prospective data on 196 wild female baboons to show that cumulative early adversity predicts natural adult lifespan. Females who experience ≥3 sources of early adversity die a median of 10 years earlier than females who experience ≤1 adverse circumstances (median lifespan is 18.5 years). Females who experience the most adversity are also socially isolated in adulthood, suggesting that social processes partially explain the link between early adversity and adult survival. Our results provide powerful evidence for the developmental origins of health and disease and indicate that close ties between early adversity and survival arise even in the absence of health habit and health care-related explanations.
Data from: Evidence for varying social strategies across the day in chacma baboons
Strong social bonds can make an important contribution to individual fitness, but we still have only a limited understanding of the temporal period relevant to the adjustment of social relationships. While there is growing recognition of the importance of strong bonds that persist for years, social relationships can also vary over weeks and months, suggesting that social strategies may be optimized over shorter timescales. Using biological market theory as a framework, we explore whether temporal variation in the benefits of social relationships might be sufficient to generate daily adjustments of social strategies in wild baboons. Data on grooming, one measure of social relationships, were collected from 60 chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) across two troops over a six month period. Our analyses suggest that social strategies can show diurnal variation, with subordinates preferentially grooming more dominant individuals earlier in the day compared with later in the day. These findings indicate that group-living animals may optimize certain elements of their social strategies over relatively short time periods.
Data from: When good neighbors don't need fences: Temporal landscape partitioning among baboon social groups
Intraspecific competition is a key factor shaping space-use strategies and movement decisions inmany species, yet how and when neighbors utilize shared areas while exhibiting active avoidance of one another is largely un- known. Here, we investigated temporal landscape partitioning in a population of wild baboons (Papio cynocephalus). We used global positioning system (GPS) collars to synchronously record the hourly locations of five baboon social groups for ∼900 days, and we used behavioral, demographic, and life history data to measure factors affecting use of overlap areas. Annual home ranges of neighboring groups overlapped substantially, as predicted (baboons are considered non-territorial), but home ranges overlapped less when space use was assessed over shorter time scales. Moreover, neighboring groups were in close spatial proximity to one another on fewer days than predicted by a null model, suggesting an avoidance-based spacing pattern. At all time scales examined (monthly, biweekly, and weekly), time spent in overlap areas was greater during time periods when groups fed on evenly dispersed, low-quality foods. The percent of fertile females in social groups was negatively correlated with time spent in overlap areas only during weekly time intervals. This suggests that broad temporal changes in ecological resources are a major predictor of how intensively overlap areas are used, and groups modify these ecologically driven spacing patterns at short time scales based on female reproductive status. Together, these findings offer insight into the economics of territoriality by highlighting the dynamics of spacing patterns at differing time scales.
Data from: To grunt or not to grunt: factors governing call production in female olive baboons, Papio anubis
Vocal signals often play an important role in synchronizing the activities of group members, coordinating decisions about when and where to travel, and facilitating social interactions in which there are potential conflicts of interest. In chacma baboons, Papio ursinus, low amplitude grunts facilitate nonaggressive social interactions and reconcile conflicts. Grunts seem to function as signals of benign intent and reduce uncertainty about the signaler's subsequent behavior. Here, we replicate and extend these findings in another species of savanna baboons, the olive baboon, Papio anubis. As in chacma baboons, female olive baboons are more likely to grunt as they approach lower ranking females than as they approach higher ranking females and are less likely to grunt as they approach their own mothers and daughters than as they approach other females. Taken together, these data support the hypothesis that baboons modify their call production for different listeners in different social contexts, and support the view that the mechanisms underlying call production may overlap with the mechanisms underlying call perception.
Data from: Intergenerational effects of early adversity on survival in wild baboons
Early life adversity can affect an individual's health, survival, and fertility for many years after the adverse experience. Whether early life adversity also imposes intergenerational effects on the exposed individual's offspring is not well understood. We fill this gap by leveraging prospective, longitudinal data on a wild, long-lived primate. We find that juveniles whose mothers experienced early life adversity exhibit high mortality before age 4, independent of the juvenile's own experience of early adversity. These juveniles often preceded their mothers in death by 1 to 2 years, indicating that high adversity females decline in their ability to raise offspring near the end of life. While we cannot exclude direct effects of a parent's environment on offspring quality (e.g., inherited epigenetic changes), our results are completely consistent with a classic parental effect, in which the environment experienced by a parent affects its future phenotype and therefor e its offspring's phenotype.
Data from: Social networks predict gut microbiome composition in wild baboons
Social relationships have profound effects on health in humans and other primates, but the mechanisms that explain this relationship are not well understood. Using shotgun metagenomic data from wild baboons, we found that social group membership and social network relationships predicted both the taxonomic structure of the gut microbiome and the structure of genes encoded by gut microbial species. Rates of interaction directly explained variation in the gut microbiome, even after controlling for diet, kinship, and shared environments. They therefore strongly implicate direct physical contact among social partners in the transmission of gut microbial species. We identified 51 socially structured taxa, which were significantly enriched for anaerobic and non-spore-forming lifestyles. Our results argue that social interactions are an important determinant of gut microbiome composition in natural animal populations—a relationship with important ramifications for understanding how social relationships influence health, as well as the evolution of group living.
Data from: Extreme behavioural shifts by baboons exploiting risky, resource-rich, human-modified environments
A range of species exploit anthropogenic food resources in behaviour known as 'raiding'. Such behavioural flexibility is considered a central component of a species' ability to cope with human-induced environmental changes. Here, we study the behavioural processes by which raiding male chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) exploit the opportunities and mitigate the risks presented by raiding in the suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. Ecological sampling and interviews conducted with 'rangers' (employed to manage the baboons' space use) revealed that baboons are at risk of being herded out of urban spaces that contain high-energy anthropogenic food sources. Baboon-attached motion/GPS tracking collars showed that raiding male baboons spent almost all of their time at the urban edge, engaging in short, high-activity forays into the urban space. Moreover, activity levels were increased where the likelihood of deterrence by rangers was greater. Overall, these raiding baboons display a time-activity balance that is drastically altered in comparison to individuals living in more remote regions. We suggest our methods can be used to obtain precise estimates of management impact for this and other species in conflict with people.
Data from: Measuring fecal testosterone in females and fecal estrogens in males: comparison of RIA and LC/MS/MS methods for wild baboons (Papio cynocephalus).
The development of non-invasive methods, particularly fecal determination, has made possible the assessment of hormone concentrations in wild animal populations. However, measuring fecal metabolites needs careful validation for each species and for each sex. We investigated whether radioimmunoassays (RIAs) previously used to measure fecal testosterone (fT) in male baboons and fecal estrogens (fE) in female baboons were well suited to measure these hormones in the opposite sex. We compared fE and fT concentrations determined by RIA to those measured by liquid chromatography combined with triple quadropole mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), a highly specific method. Additionally, we conducted a biological validation to assure that the measurements of fecal concentrations reflected physiological levels of the hormone of interest. Several tests produced expected results that led us to conclude that our RIAs can reliably measure fT and fE in both sexes, and that within-sex comparisons of these measures are valid: (i) fTRIA were significantly correlated to fTLC/MS/MS for both sexes; (ii) fTRIA were higher in adult than in immature males; (iii) fTRIA were higher in pregnant than non-pregnant females; (iv) fERIA were correlated with 17β-estradiol (fE2) and with estrone (fE1) determined by LC/MS/MS in pregnant females; (v) fERIA were significantly correlated with fE2 in non-pregnant females and nearly significantly correlated in males; (vi) fERIA were higher in adult males than in immature males. fERIA were higher in females than in males, as predicted, but unexpectedly, fTRIA were higher in females than in males, suggesting a difference in steroid metabolism in the two sexes; consequently, we conclude that while within-sex comparisons are valid, fTRIA should not be used for intersexual comparisons. Our results should open the field to important additional studies, as to date the roles of testosterone in females and estrogens in males have been little investigated.
Data from: The effect of excluding juveniles on apparent adult olive baboons (Papio anubis) social networks
In recent years there has been much interest in investigating the social structure of group living animals using social network analysis. Many studies so far have focused on the social networks of adults, often excluding younger, immature group members. This potentially may lead to a biased view of group social structure as multiple recent studies have shown that younger group members can significantly contribute to group structure. As proof of the concept, we address this issue by investigating social network structure with and without juveniles in wild olive baboons (Papio anubis) at Gashaka Gumti National Park, Nigeria. Two social networks including all independently moving individuals (i.e., excluding dependent juveniles) were created based on aggressive and grooming behaviour. We used knockout simulations based on the random removal of individuals from the network in order to investigate to what extent the exclusion of juveniles affects the resulting network structure and our interpretation of age-sex specific social roles. We found that juvenile social patterns differed from those of adults and that the exclusion of juveniles from the network significantly altered the resulting overall network structure. Moreover, the removal of juveniles from the network affected individuals in specific age-sex classes differently: for example, including juveniles in the grooming network increased network centrality of adult females while decreasing centrality of adult males. These results suggest that excluding juveniles from the analysis may not only result in a distorted picture of the overall social structure but also may mask some of the social roles of individuals belonging to different age-sex classes.
Data from: Predicting the impacts of climate change on Papio baboon biogeography: are widespread, generalist primates 'safe'?
Aims: To explore whether wide-ranging, generalist primates like baboons can be presumed 'resilient' in the face of climate change. We identify environmental variables influencing baboons' current distributions and predict their future potential distributions under different climate change scenarios. Location: Africa and Arabia. Taxon: Baboons, Papio spp. Methods: We used localities for olive, yellow, Guinea, hamadryas, chacma and Kinda baboons together with high-resolution data on bioclimatic variables, altitude and vegetation to construct species distribution models (SDMs). These SDMs were run under current and future conditions, with future models based on three General Circulation Models (MIROC-ESM, CCSM4 and HadGEM2-ES) under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.5 and 6.0) for 2050 and 2070 to explore a range of different possible futures. Results: All SDMs produced AUC values >0.916 suggesting excellent overall performance. Altitude was the most important variable influencing Guinea baboon distributions (contributing 41.6%), temperature seasonality for olive and yellow baboons (47.5% and 35.4% respectively), precipitation of the driest month for hamadryas baboons (24.4%), annual mean precipitation for the Kinda baboon (45.1%) and mean temperature of the driest quarter for chacma baboons (41.4%). Chacma and Kinda baboons are predicted to suffer substantial habitat loss, and Guinea baboons may do the same if conditions aridify as climates warm. In contrast, all models for the olive and hamadryas baboons predicted an increase in suitable habitat and only smaller changes were predicted for the yellow baboon. Main conclusions: Two or three of six baboon taxa are at risk of significant habitat loss as climates warm despite their apparent ecological flexibility. The chacma and Kinda baboons (both IUCN listed as Least Concern) will be worst affected, followed by the Guinea baboon (Near Threatened) if warming brings aridification. We recommend more focus on biogeographic tools as a means of exploring vulnerabilities in seemingly resilient species.
Data from: Canine length in wild male baboons: maturation, aging and social dominance rank
Canines represent an essential component of the dentition for any heterodont mammal. In primates, like many other mammals, canines are frequently used as weapons. Hence, tooth size and wear may have significant implications for fighting ability, and consequently for social dominance rank, reproductive success, and fitness. We evaluated sources of variance in canine growth and length in a well-studied wild primate population because of the potential importance of canines for male reproductive success in many primates. Specifically, we measured maxillary canine length in 80 wild male baboons (aged 5.04–20.45 years) from the Amboseli ecosystem in southern Kenya, and examined its relationship with maturation, age, and social dominance rank. In our analysis of maturation, we compared food-enhanced baboons (those that fed part time at a refuse pit associated with a tourist lodge) with wild-feeding males, and found that food-enhanced males achieved long canines earlier than wild-feeding males. Among adult males, canine length decreased with age because of tooth wear. We found some evidence that, after controlling for age, longer canines were associated with higher adult dominance rank (accounting for 9% of the variance in rank), but only among relatively high-ranking males. This result supports the idea that social rank, and thus reproductive success and fitness, may depend in part on fighting ability mediated by canine size.
Data from: Knockouts of high-ranking males have limited impact on baboon social networks
Social network structures can crucially impact complex social processes such as collective behaviour or the transmission of information and diseases. However, currently it is poorly understood how social networks change over time. Previous studies on primates suggest that 'knockouts' (due to death or dispersal) of high-ranking individuals might be important drivers for structural changes in animal social networks. Here we test this hypothesis using long-term data on a natural population of baboons, examining the effects of 29 natural knockouts of alpha or beta males on adult female social networks. We investigated whether and how knockouts affected (1) changes in grooming and association rates among adult females, and (2) changes in mean degree and global clustering coefficient in these networks. The only significant effect that we found was a decrease in mean degree in grooming networks in the first month after knockouts, but this decrease was rather small, and grooming networks rebounded to baseline levels by the second month after knockouts. Taken together our results indicate that the removal of high-ranking males has only limited or no lasting effects on social networks of adult female baboons. This finding calls into question the hypothesis that the removal of high-ranking individuals has a destabilizing effect on social network structures in social animals.
Data from: Genetic structure in a dynamic baboon hybrid zone corroborates behavioral observations in a hybrid population
Behavior and genetic structure are intimately related: mating patterns and patterns of movement between groups or populations influence the movement of genetic variation across the landscape and from one generation to the next. In hybrid zones, the behavior of the hybridizing taxa can also have an important impact on the incidence and outcome of hybridization events. Hybridization between yellow baboons and anubis baboons has been well-documented in the Amboseli basin of Kenya, where more anubis-like individuals tend to experience maturational and reproductive advantages. However, it is unknown whether these advantages are reflected in the genetic structure of populations surrounding this area. Here, we used nuclear microsatellite genotype data to evaluate the geographic structure and composition of baboon populations in southern Kenya, up to the border of Tanzania. Our results indicate that, unlike for mitochondrial DNA, microsatellite-based measures of genetic structure are in concordance with phenotypically based taxonomic distinctions, and that the currently active hybrid zone is relatively narrow. Interestingly, isolation with migration analysis revealed asymmetric gene flow in this region from anubis populations into yellow populations, in support of the anubis-biased phenotypic advantages observed in Amboseli. Populations that are primarily yellow but that are the recipients of anubis gene flow exhibit higher levels of genetic diversity than yellow populations far from the introgression front. Our results support previous work that indicates a long history of hybridization and male-mediated genetic introgression among East African baboons. In particular, it suggests that anubis baboons are in the process of gradual range expansion into the historic range of yellow baboon populations, a pattern that could be mechanistically explained by behavioral and life history advantages that correlate with anubis ancestry.
Genetic regulatory effects in response to a high cholesterol, high fat diet in baboons
<p>Disease-associated loci discovered through genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are primarily located in non-coding regions with putative regulatory effects on gene expression. Steady-state, standard expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) explain only a limited portion of GWAS signals, while eQTLs involved in gene-by-environment (GxE) interactions have rarely been characterized in humans due to experimental challenges. Here, we characterized gene-by-diet effects in a baboon model system. By analyzing three tissue types obtained from 99 captive baboons, we identify hundreds of diet-responsive eQTLs with high tissue specificity. Diet-responsive eQTLs exhibit genomic localization and genic features that are distinct from steady-state eQTLs. Furthermore, the human orthologs of genes associated with diet-responsive eQTLs are enriched for GWAS genes associated with human metabolic traits, suggesting that context-responsive eQTLs with more complex regulatory effects are likely to explain GWAS hits that do not seem to overlap with standard eQTLs. Our results highlight the dynamic complexity of genetic regulatory effects and the potential of eQTLs with disease-relevant GxE interactions in enhancing the understanding of GWAS signals for human complex disease using the baboon model.</p>
Insights into short and long-term crop-foraging strategies in a chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) from GPS and accelerometer data
<p>Crop-foraging by animals is a leading cause of human-wildlife 'conflict' globally, affecting farmers and resulting in the death of many animals in retaliation, including primates. Despite significant research into crop-foraging by primates, relatively little is understood about the behaviour and movements of primates in and around crop fields, largely due to the limitations of traditional observational methods. Crop-foraging by primates in large scale agriculture has also received little attention. We used GPS and accelerometer bio-loggers, along with environmental data, to gain an understanding of the spatial and temporal patterns of activity for a female in a crop-foraging baboon group in and around commercial farms in South Africa over one year. Crop fields were avoided for most of the year, suggesting that fields are perceived as a high-risk habitat. When field visits did occur, this was generally when plant primary productivity was low, suggesting that crops were a 'fallback food'. All recorded field visits were at or before 15:00. Activity was significantly higher in crop fields than in the landscape in general, evidence that crop-foraging is an energetically costly strategy and that fields are perceived as a risky habitat. In contrast, activity was significantly lower within 100m of the field edge than in the rest of the landscape, suggesting that baboons wait near the field edge to assess risks before crop-foraging. Together this understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of crop-foraging can help to inform crop protection strategies and reduce conflict between humans and baboons in South Africa.</p>
On following pages: 41. Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus); 42. Olive Baboon (Papio anubis); 43. Guinea Baboon (Papio papio); 44. Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas); 45. Gelada (Theropithecus gelada). in Cercopithecidae
On following pages: 41. Chacma Baboon (Papio ursinus); 42. Olive Baboon (Papio anubis); 43. Guinea Baboon (Papio papio); 44. Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas); 45. Gelada (Theropithecus gelada).
Data from: Consistency in the flight and visual orientation distances of habituated chacma baboons after an observed leopard predation: Do flight initiation distance methods always measure perceived predation risk?
<p>Flight initiation distance (FID) procedures are used to assess the risk perception animals have for threats (e.g., natural predators, hunters) but it is unclear whether these assessments remain meaningful if animals have habituated to certain human stimuli (e.g., researchers, tourists). Our previous work showed that habituated baboons displayed individually distinct and consistent responses to human approaches, a tolerance trait, but it is unknown if the trait is resilient to life-threatening scenarios. If it were consistent, it would imply FIDs might measure specific human threat perception only and not generalise to other threats such as predators when animals have experienced habituation processes. We used FID procedures to compare baseline responses to the visual orientation distance, FID, and individual tolerance estimates assessed after a leopard predation on an adult male baboon (group member). All variables were consistent despite the predation event, suggesting tolerance to observers was largely unaffected by the predation and FID procedures are unlikely to be generalisable to other threats when habituation has occurred. FID approaches could be an important tool for assessing how humans influence animal behaviour across a range of contexts, but careful planning is required to understand the type of stimuli presented.</p>
Genomic Resources for Global and Local Ancestry Estimation in a Captive Baboon Colony
<p>VCF files mapped to <em>Panubis1.0</em> with 881 olive (<em>Papio anubis</em>) and yellow (<em>Papio cynocephalus</em>) baboons from the Southwest National Primate Research Center. VCF files were generated in two separate pipelines, first using Beagle 4.1 and Beagle 5.4 and additionally SHAPEIT5/IMPUTE5 to test if a pedigree-aware software reduced the number of evident phase switch errors. VCFs here have been phased and imputed in their respective pipelines, filtered for imputation accuracy with markers with less than 0.7 confidence removed using BCFTools, and then phase switch corrected using Tractor. Genomic resources (AIMs and Fixed markers) are based off of <em>Panubis1.0 </em>coordinates. Local ancestry estimation completed by RFMix and then phase-switch-corrected using Tractor. </p>
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