Landscape-Scale Effects of Season and Predation Risk on the Terrestrial Behavior of Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus)

Abstract

Objectives

“Terrestrial” primates are not common nor well defined across the order. In those species that do use the ground, terrestriality is rarely documented outside daylight hours. Predation risk is thought to have shaped conserved behaviors like primates' selection of arboreal sleep sites, but it is less clear—particularly at the landscape scale—how predation risk interacts with other ecological and seasonal variables to drive terrestriality. This camera trapping study investigates patterns in terrestrial behavior both spatially and temporally across neighboring populations of chacma baboons.

Materials and Methods

We use camera trap data from two terrestrial grids, one established within and one outside the boundaries of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. We model how baboon terrestrial activity varies with woody cover, proximity to water, season, anthropogenic variables, as well as predation risk. We also model how terrestrial activity varies across the diel cycle and use overlap analyses to explore differences in the baboon populations' activity patterns.

Results

We find no significant predictors of geospatial variation in the terrestrial activity of baboons across each grid but do find evidence of higher terrestrial activity in the late dry season. We also find significantly different diel patterns of baboon activity detected across each grid.

Discussion

Baboons likely use the ground more in the dry season for accessing water and resources when arboreal foods are less abundant. Diel variation between the two populations suggests that baboons might utilize the ground more during “riskier” crepuscular and nocturnal hours where leopards are not present.