Active predation has been considered a powerful selective pressure for at least 500 million years, ever since animals evolved eyes, teeth, and jaws. Traits which have been proposed to be evolved adaptations to predation pressure in primates and early human ancestors include alarm calls, large body size, large group size, group-living itself, increased vigilance, avoidance of high-risk habitats, and greater cognitive abilities. Empirical evidence to both document actual predation pressure on primates and to then assess evolved and co-evolved traits in the context of predator-prey relationships, however, has been extremely difficult to acquire. A number of significant predators for primates are active at night, limiting data acquisition, and the presence of human observers studying primates in the wild likely discourages predation during other times.
Recent advances in remote sensing technologies, such as the use of GPS-tracking collars, now provide a mechanism to systematically and more fully document the interactions between predators and prey. This research will utilize these technological innovations to assess predator-prey behavior and interactions between two primates, baboons and vervet monkeys, and their likely major predator, leopards, in East Africa. These primate species are terrestrial and occupy savannah-woodland habitats, conditions relevant to much of the developed theory on adaptations to predation, and they are frequently utilized in reconstructions of early human ancestral lifeways. Spatial data from the GPS collars on individuals of all three species, along with data from voice-activated recorders that document nocturnal attacks at primate sleeping sites, will generate unprecedented and detailed records of the frequency of predator-prey interactions, predation rates, prey vulnerability, and prey responses. Because baboons and vervets differ in body size, group size, habitat use, ranging behavior, and types of alarm calls, these data will enable us to test long-standing but heretofore untested hypotheses about these presumed, evolved adaptations to predators.
This project provides research and training opportunities for a US postdoctoral researcher and a Kenyan graduate student. Its broader impacts are further expanded by being based at Mpala Research Centre, a facility jointly maintained by US and Kenyan organizations. It strengthens collaborative relationships between US and Kenyan organizations and aids local community conservation and education efforts through its contributions to Mpala. Finally, the data from this project will inform conservation efforts to better protect carnivore and primate species.
