Abstract
A goal of conservation biology is to determine which types of species are most susceptible to habitat disturbance and which types of disturbed habitats can support particular species. We studied 20 forest fragments outside of Kibale National Park, Uganda, to address this question. At each patch, we determined the presence of primate species, tree species composition, patch size, and distance to nearest patch. We collected demographic, behavioral, and dietary data for Abyssinian black-and-white colobus (Colobus guereza). Black-and-white colobus and red-tailed guenons (Cercopithecus ascanius) were in almost all fragments; Pennant's red colobus (Procolobus pennantii) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were in some fragments; and blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) and gray-cheeked mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena) were absent from all fragments. No species characteristics—home range, body size, group size, or degree of frugivory—predicted the ability of species to live in patches. No characteristics of patches—area, distance to the nearest patch, distance to Kibale, or number of food trees present—predicted the presence of a particular species in a patch, but distance to Kibale may have influenced presence of red colobus. Black-and-white colobus group size was significantly smaller in the forest patches than in the continuous forest of Kibale. For a group of black-and-white colobus in one patch, food plant species and home range size were very different from those of a group within Kibale. However, their activity budget and plant parts eaten were quite similar to those of the Kibale group. The lack of strong predictive variables as well as differences between other studies of fragmentation and ours caution against making generalizations about primate responses to fragmentation.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Butynski, T. M. (1990). Comparative ecology of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) in highand low-density subpopulations. Ecol. Monogr. 60: 1–26.
Chapman, C. A., and Chapman, L. J. (2000). Constraints on group size in redtail monkeys and red colobus: testing the generality of the ecological constraints model. Int. J. Primatol. 21: 565–585.
Chapman, C. A., Chapman, L. J., Wrangham, R. W., Isabirye-Basuta, G., and Ben-David, K. (1997). Spatial and temporal variability in the structure of a tropical forest. Afr. J. Ecol. 35: 287–302.
Chapman, C. A., and Wrangham, R. W. (1993). Range use of the forest chimpanzees of Kibale: Implications for the understanding of chimpanzee social organization. Am. J. Primatol. 31: 263–273.
Chapman, C. A., Wrangham, R. W., and Chapman, L. J. (1995). Ecological constraints on group size: An analysis of spider monkey and chimpanzee subgroups. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 36: 59–70.
Clutton-Brock, T. H. (1975). Feeding behaviour of red colobus and black and white colobus in East Africa. Folia Primatol. 23: 165–207.
Coley, P. D. (1983). Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest. Ecol. Monogr. 53: 209–233.
Conover, W. J. (1980). Practical Nonparametric Statistics, 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Dasilva, G. L. (1994). Diet of Colobus polykomos on Tiwai Island: Selection of food in relation to its seasonal abundance and nutritional quality. Int. J. Primatol. 15: 655–680.
Davies, A. G. (1994). Colobine populations. In Davies, A. G., and Oates, J. F. (eds.), Colobine Monkeys: Their Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 285–310.
Dunbar, R. I. M. (1987). Habitat quality, population dynamics, and group composition in colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza). Int. J. Primatol. 8: 299–329.
Estrada, A., and Coates-Estrada, R. (1996). Tropical rain forest fragmentation and wild populations of primates at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Int. J. Primatol. 17: 759–783.
Galetti, M., Pedroni, F., and Morellato, L. P. C. (1994). Diet of the brown howler monkey Alouatta fusca in a forest fragment in southeastern Brazil. Mammalia 58: 111–118.
Garcia Chiarello, A. (1993). Home range of the brown howler monkey, Alouatta fusca, in a forest fragment of southeastern Brazil. Folia Primatol. 60: 173–175.
Gebo, D. L., and Chapman, C. A. (1995). Positional behavior in five sympatric Old World monkeys. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 97: 49–76.
Hamilton, A. C. (1974). Distribution patterns of forest trees in Uganda and their historical significance. Vegetatio 29: 21–35.
Hamilton, A. C. (1984). Deforestation in Uganda, Oxford University Press, Nairobi.
Harrison, M. J. S. (1988). The mandrill in Gabon' rain forest-ecology, distribution and status. Oryx 22: 218–228.
Howard, P. C. (1991). Nature Conservation in Uganda' Tropical Forest Reserves, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Johns, A. D., and Skorupa, J. P. (1987). Responses of rain forest primates to habitat disturbance: A review. Int. J. Primatol. 8: 157–191.
Lambert, J. E. 1997. Digestive Strategies, Fruit Processing, and Seed Dispersal in the Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Redtail Monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) of Kibale National Park, Uganda, Ph.D. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Lovejoy, T. E., Bierregaard, R. O., Jr., Rylands, A. B., Malcolm, J. R., Quintela, C. E., Harper, L. H., Brown, K. S., Powell, A. H., Powell, G. V. N., Schubart, H. O. R., and Hays, M. B. (1986). Edge and other effects of isolation on Amazon forest fragments. In Soulé, M. E. (ed.), Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity, Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, pp. 257–285.
MacArthur, R. H., and Wilson, E. O. (1967). The Theory of Island Biogeography, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Marsh, C. W., Johns, A. D., and Ayres, J. M. (1987). Effects of habitat disturbance on rain forest primates. In Marsh, C. W., and Mittermeier, R. A. (eds.), Primate Conservation in the Tropical Rain Forest, Alan R. Liss, New York, pp. 83–107.
McNeely, J. A., Miller, K. R., Reid, W. V., Mittermeier, R. A., and Werner, T. B. (1990). Conserving the World' Biodiversity, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Menard, S. (1995). Applied Logistic Regression Analysis, Sage University paper series on quantitative applications in the social sciences, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Mugisha, S. (1994). Land Cover/Use around Kibale National Park, Analysis of 1988 aerial photographs, Uganda Forestry Department, MUIENR, RS/GIS Lab, Kampala, Uganda.
Naughton-Treves, L. (1996). Uneasy Neighbors: Wildlife and Farmers around Kibale National Park, Uganda, Ph.D. thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Noss, R. F., and Csuti, B. (1994). Habitat fragmentation. In Meffe, G. K., and Carroll, C. R. (eds.), Principles of Conservation Biology, Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, pp. 237–264.
Oates, J. F. (1974). The Ecology and Behavior of the Black-and-White Colobus Monkey (Colobus guereza Rüppell) in East Africa, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, London.
Oates, J. F. (1977). The guereza and its food. In Clutton-Brock, T. H. (ed.), Primate Ecology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 275–321.
Oates, J. F. (1996). Habitat alteration, hunting and the conservation of folivorous primates in African forests. Austral. J. Ecol. 21: 1–9.
Oates, J. F., Whitesides, G. H., Davies, A. G., Waterman, P. G., Green, S. M., Dasilva, G. L., and Mole, S. (1990). Determinants of variation in tropical forest primate biomass: New evidence from West Africa. Ecology 71: 328–343.
Oluput, W., Chapman, C. A., Brown, C. H., Waser, P. M. (1994). Mangabey (Cercocebus albigena) population density, group size, and ranging: a twenty-year comparison. Am. J. Primatol. 32: 197–205.
Onderdonk, D. A. (1998). Coping with Forest Fragmentation: The Primates of Kibale National Park, Uganda, M.S. thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Osmaston, H. A. (1959). Working Plan for the Kibale and Itwara Central Forest Reserves: Toro District, W. Province, Uganda, Report #1, Forest Department, Kampala, Uganda.
Plumptre, A. J., and Reynolds, V. (1994). The effect of selective logging on the primate populations in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda. J. Appl. Ecol. 31: 631–641.
Robbins, C. S., Dawson, D. K., and Dowell, B. A. (1989). Habitat area requirements of breeding forest birds of the Middle Atlantic states. Wildl. Monogr. 103: 1–34.
Robinson, J. G., and Ramirez, J. (1982). Conservation biology of neotropical primates. In Mares, M. A., and Genoways, H. H. (eds.), Mammalian Biology in South America, Vol. 6, Special Publication Series, Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, University of Pittsburgh, Linesville, PA, pp. 329–344.
Rudran, R. (1978). Intergroup dietary comparisons and folivorous tendencies of two groups of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis stuhlmanni). In Montgomery, G. G. (ed.), The Ecology of Arboreal Folivores, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., pp. 483–503.
Skorupa, J. P. (1986). Responses of rain-forest primates to selective logging in Kibale Forest, Uganda: a summary report. In Benirschke, K. (ed.), Primates, the Road to Self-Sustaining Populations, Springer Verlag, New York, pp. 57–70.
Struhsaker, T. T. (1975). The Red Colobus Monkey, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Struhsaker, T. T. (1978). Food habits of five monkey species in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. In Chivers, D. J., and Herbert, J. (eds.), Recent Advances in Primatology, Vol. 1, Behaviour, Academic Press, New York, pp. 225–248.
Struhsaker, T. T. (1987). Forestry issues and conservation in Uganda. Biol. Conserv. 39: 209–234.
Struhsaker, T. T. (1997). Ecology of an African Rain Forest: Logging in Kibale and the Conflict between Conservation and Exploitation, University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Struhsaker, T. T., and Leland, L. (1979). Socioecology of five sympatric monkey species in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. In Rosenblatt, J., Hinde, R. A., Beer, C., and Busnel, M. C. (eds.), Advances in the Study of Behavior, Vol. 9, Academic Press, New York, pp. 158–228.
Struhsaker, T. T., and Oates, J. F. (1975). Comparison of the behavior and ecology of red colobus and black-and-white colobus monkeys in Uganda: A summary. In Tuttle, R. H. (ed.), Socio-ecology and Psychology of Primates, Mouton, The Hague, pp. 103–123.
Teelen, S. (1994). Group Size and Group Structure of Guereza, Colobus guereza occidentalis (Rochebrune 1886), in the Kibale Forest, Uganda, Diploma, Technischen Universita¨ t Braunschweig.
Terborgh, J., and Janson, C. H. (1986). The socioecology of primate groups. Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 17: 111–135.
Tutin, C. E. G., and Oslisly, R. (1995). Homo, Pan and Gorilla: Co-existence over 60,000 years at Lopé in central Gabon. J. Hum. Evol. 28: 597–602.
Tutin, C. E. G., White, L. J. T., and Mackanga-Missandzou, A. (1997). The use by rain forest mammals of natural forest fragments in an equatorial African savanna. Conserv. Biol. 11: 1190–1203.
Wrangham, R. W., Chapman, C. A., and Chapman, L. J. (1994). Seed dispersal by forest chimpanzees in Uganda. J. Trop. Ecol. 10: 355–368.
Wrangham, R. W., Chapman, C. A., Clark-Arcadi, A. P., and Isabirye-Basuta, G. (1996). Social ecology of Kanyawara chimpanzees: Implications for understanding the costs of great ape groups. In McGrew, W. C., Marchant, L. F., and Nishida, T. (eds.), Great Ape Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 45–57.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Onderdonk, D.A., Chapman, C.A. Coping with Forest Fragmentation: The Primates of Kibale National Park, Uganda. International Journal of Primatology 21, 587–611 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005509119693
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005509119693