Research article

Climate-mediated activity of the Javan Slow Loris, Nycticebus javanicus

  • Received: 28 February 2016 Accepted: 21 April 2016 Published: 29 April 2016
  • Joint impacts of anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are of pressing concern for modern conservationists. Climate change patterns have various diminishing effects on the biodiversity of an ecosystem, requiring an understanding of a species’ ability to adapt. Agricultural practices are expanding at an altitudinal gradient on the Indonesian island of Java, forcing endemic species to range at increased elevation with lower temperatures, and in human-populated areas. One example is the Critically Endangered Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), which finds itself increasingly restricted to montane regions with extreme climate patterns and habitat disturbance. We observed wild N. javanicus in a highly fragmented, montane agroforest area to determine if climate variables and forest connectivity influence activity budget and behavior. Lorises ranged at different altitudes (1275 m above sea level (asl)—1570 m asl) and were observed for six months in Cipaganti, West Java. Using multinomial regression analyses, we found loris individuals were most likely to engage in increased foraging, feeding and travelling behavior than resting when relative humidity increases and in habitats with greater forest connectivity. Regression analyses found effects of relative humidity and forest connectivity to be the most significant predictors of N. javanicus foraging behavior (P = 0.001, P = 0.030). We suggest that future-climate shifts and increased anthropogenic disturbance will detrimentally influence wild populations of N. javanicus, requiring immediate plans for mitigation in conserving these already scarce wild populations. We also suggest the altering of reintroduction protocols in relation to climate and geographic region.

    Citation: Kathleen D Reinhardt, Wirdateti, K.AI. Nekaris. Climate-mediated activity of the Javan Slow Loris, Nycticebus javanicus[J]. AIMS Environmental Science, 2016, 3(2): 249-260. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2016.2.249

    Related Papers:

  • Joint impacts of anthropogenic disturbance and climate change are of pressing concern for modern conservationists. Climate change patterns have various diminishing effects on the biodiversity of an ecosystem, requiring an understanding of a species’ ability to adapt. Agricultural practices are expanding at an altitudinal gradient on the Indonesian island of Java, forcing endemic species to range at increased elevation with lower temperatures, and in human-populated areas. One example is the Critically Endangered Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), which finds itself increasingly restricted to montane regions with extreme climate patterns and habitat disturbance. We observed wild N. javanicus in a highly fragmented, montane agroforest area to determine if climate variables and forest connectivity influence activity budget and behavior. Lorises ranged at different altitudes (1275 m above sea level (asl)—1570 m asl) and were observed for six months in Cipaganti, West Java. Using multinomial regression analyses, we found loris individuals were most likely to engage in increased foraging, feeding and travelling behavior than resting when relative humidity increases and in habitats with greater forest connectivity. Regression analyses found effects of relative humidity and forest connectivity to be the most significant predictors of N. javanicus foraging behavior (P = 0.001, P = 0.030). We suggest that future-climate shifts and increased anthropogenic disturbance will detrimentally influence wild populations of N. javanicus, requiring immediate plans for mitigation in conserving these already scarce wild populations. We also suggest the altering of reintroduction protocols in relation to climate and geographic region.


    加载中
    [1] Paull SH, Johnson PTJ (2013) Can we predict climate-driven changes to disease dynamics? Applications for theory and management in the face of uncertainty. In: Brodie JF, Post E and Doak DF (eds.) Wildlife conservation in a changing climate. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
    [2] Dunbar RIM (2002) Impact of global warming on the distribution of survival of the gelada baboon: a modeling approach. Global Change Biol 4: 293-304.
    [3] Bettridge C, Lehmann J, Dunbar RIM (2010) Trade-offs between time, predation risk and life history, and their implications for biogeography: a system modeling approach with a primate case study. Ecol Model 221: 777-790. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.11.017
    [4] Gabriel DN (2013) Habitat use and activity patterns as an indication of fragment quality in a strepsirrhine primate. Int J Primatol 34: 388-406.
    [5] Graham TL, Matthews HD, Turner SE (2016) A global-scale evaluation of primate exposure and vulnerability to climate change. Int J Primatol, 1-17.
    [6] Adams-Hosking C, Grantham HS, Rhodes JR, et al. (2011) Modelling climate-change-induced shifts in the distribution of the koala. Wildlife Res 38: 122-130. doi: 10.1071/WR10156
    [7] Lovegrove BG, Canale C, Levesque D, et al. (2014) Are tropical small mammals physiologically vulnerable to Arrhenius effects and climate change? Physiol Biochem Zool 87: 30-45.
    [8] Hockings KJ, Anderson JR, Matsuzawa T (2012) Socioecological adaptations by chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes verus, inhabiting an anthropogenically impacted habitat. Anim Behav 83: 801-810.
    [9] Whitten T, Soeriaatmadja RE, Afiff SA (1996) The Ecology of Java & Bali: The Ecology of Indonesia Series, Volume II. Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd, Singapore.
    [10] Nijman V (2013) One hundred years of solitude: effects of long-term forest fragmentation on the primate community of Java, Indonesia. Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, Primates in Fragments, Springer, 33-45.
    [11] Rice RA, Greenberg R (2000) Cacao cultivation and the conservation of biological diversity. Ambio 29: 167-173. doi: 10.1579/0044-7447-29.3.167
    [12] Rode-Margono EJ, Nijman V, Wirdateti, et al. (2014) Ethology of the Critically Endangered Javan slow loris Nycticebus javanicus E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in West Java. Asian Primates Journal 4: 27-41.
    [13] Nekaris KAI (2014) Extreme primates: Ecology and evolution of Asian lorises. Evolutionary Anthropology23: 177-187.
    [14] Streicher U (2005) Seasonal body weight changes in pygmy lorises Nycticebus pygmaeus. Verhandlungsber. Zootierkrk 42: 144-145.
    [15] Xiao CH, Wang ZK, Zhu WL, et al. (2010) Energy metabolism and thermoregulation in pygmy lorises (Nycticebus pygmaeus) from Yunnan Daweishan Nature Reserve. Acta Ecologica Sinica30: 129-134.
    [16] Ruf T, Streicher U, Stalder GL, et al. (2015) Hibernation in the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus): multiday torpor in primates is not restricted to Madagascar. Sci rep 5: 17392. doi: 10.1038/srep17392
    [17] Starr C, Nekaris KAI, Leung L (2012) Hiding from the moonlight: luminosity and temperature affect activity of Asian nocturnal primates in a highly seasonal forest. PloS one 7: e36396. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036396
    [18] Rode-Margono EJ, Nekaris KAI (2014) Impact of climate and moonlight on a venomous mammal, the Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus Geoffroy, 1812). Contrib Zool 83: 217-225.
    [19] Braak C (1929) The Climate of the Netherland Indies; Volumes I and II. Verhandelingen No. 8, Koninklijk Magnetisch en Meteorologisch Observatorium te Batavia.
    [20] Schmidt FH, Ferguson HA (1951) Rainfall types based on wet and dry period ratios for Indonesia and Western New Guinea. Verh. Djawatan Met. Geofisik, Jakarta 42.
    [21] RePPProT (1990) The land resources of Indonesia: a national overview. Jakarta: Directorate General of Settlement Preparation, Ministry of Transmigration and London: Natural Resources Institute, Overseas Development Administration.
    [22] Hill RA, Dunbar RIM (2002) Climatic determinants of diet and foraging behaviour in baboons. Evol Ecol 16: 579-593.
    [23] Grueter CC, Li D, Ren B, et al. (2013) Overwintering strategy of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys: adjustments in activity scheduling and foraging patterns. Primates 54: 125-135. doi: 10.1007/s10329-012-0333-3
    [24] Young BE, Hall KR, Byers E, et al. (2013) Rapid assessment of plant and animal vulnerability to climate change. In: Brodie JF, Post E and Doak DF (eds.) Wildlife conservation in a changing climate. Chicago: Chicago University Press, USA.
    [25] Fadamiro HY, Wyatt TD (1995) Flight initiation by Prostephanus truncates in relation to time of day, temperature, relative humidity and starvation. Entomol Exp Appl 75: 273-277.
    [26] Rode-Margono EJ, Rademaker M, Wirdateti W, et al. (2015) Noxious arthropods as potential prey of the venomous Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) in a West Javan volcanic agricultural system. J Nat Hist 49: 1949-1959. doi: 10.1080/00222933.2015.1006282
    [27] Sharmoun-Baranes J, Van Loon E, van Gasteren H, et al. (2006) A comparative analysis of the influence of weather on the flight altitudes of birds. B Am Meteorol Soc 87: 47-61. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-87-1-47
    [28] Chaves OM, Stoner KE, Arroyo-Rodriguez V (2011) Seasonal differences in activity patterns of Geoffroyi’s spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) living in continuous and fragmented forests in southern Mexico. Int J Primatol 32: 960-973. doi: 10.1007/s10764-011-9515-x
    [29] Langvatn R, Albon SD, Burkey T, et al. (1996) Climate, plant phenology and variation in age of first reproduction in a temperate herbivore. J Anim Ecol 65: 653-670. doi: 10.2307/5744
    [30] Starr C, Nekaris KAI (2013) Obligate exudativory characterizes the diet of the pygmy slow loris Nycticebus pygmaeus. Am j primatol 75: 1054-1061. doi: 10.1002/ajp.22171
    [31] Moore RS, Wihermanto W, Nekaris KAI (2014) Compassionate conservation, rehabilitation and translocation of Indonesian slow lorises. Endangered Species Research 26: 93-102. doi: 10.3354/esr00620
    [32] Reinhardt KD, Wirdateti, Nekaris KAI (2015) “Relationships between altitude, habitat structure and behaviour of Nycticebus javanicus in a submontane agroforest. Folia Primatologica 86(4): 345-346.
    [33] Davies-Colley RJ, Payne GW, van Elswijk (2000) Microclimate gradients across a forest edge. New Zeal J Ecol 24: 111-121.
    [34] Cleugh HA (1998) Effects of windbreaks on airflow, microclimates and crop yields. Agroforest Syst 41: 55-84. doi: 10.1023/A:1006019805109
    [35] Nowack J, Nomakwezi M, Dausmann KH (2013) Torpor as an emergency solution in Galago moholi: heterothermy is triggered by different constraints. J Comp Physiol B 183: 547-556. doi: 10.1007/s00360-012-0725-0
    [36] Adolph SC (1990) Influence of behavioral thermoregulation on microhabitat use by two Sceloporus lizards. Ecology 7: 315-327.
    [37] Donati G, Ricci E, Baldi N, et al. (2011) Behavioral thermoregulation in a gregarious lemur, Eulemur collaris: effects of climatic and dietary-related factors. Am J Phys Anthropol 144: 355-364. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.21415
    [38] Majolo B, McFarland R, Young C, et al. (2013) The effects of climatic factors on the activity budgets of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). Int J Primatol 34: 500-514.
    [39] Korstjens AH, Lehmann J, Dunbar RIM (2010) Resting time as an ecological constraint on primate biogeography. Anim Behav 79: 361-374.
    [40] Kobbe S, Nowack J, Dausmann KH (2014) Torpor is not the only option: seasonal variations of the thermoneutral zone in a small primate. J Comp Physiol B 184: 789-797. doi: 10.1007/s00360-014-0834-z
    [41] Reinhardt KD, Spaan D, Wirdateti, et al. (2014) Torpor in a Critically Endangered primate: climate effects on Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) behavior. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting. American Society of Primatology. Decatur, Georgia. Abstract no. 55.
    [42] Nekaris KAI, Starr CR (2015) Conservation and ecology of the neglected slow loris: priorities and prospects.Endangered Species Research 28: 87-95. doi: 10.3354/esr00674
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2016 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(6437) PDF downloads(1669) Cited by(16)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Figures(3)  /  Tables(1)

Other Articles By Authors

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog