Project title: Habitat use, movement patterns and energy expenditure of black lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) in response to landscape fragmentation.

 

Advisor: Dr. Laurence Culot. Co-advisor: Dr. Claudio Benedito Valladares-Padua and Dr. Luca Börger.

 

Abstract: Habitat fragmentation and degradation can affect the movement of animal species and cause behavioral and ecological changes. On a worst-case scenario, fragmentation may restrict animal movements to isolated suitable habitat patches, thereby isolating populations, reducing gene flow and ultimately causing local extinctions. For this reason, processes that alter landscape structures have been listed as one of the major threats to species that depend on non-fragmented habitats to live. For example, forest clearing and degradation in the Neotropics are a significant threat to all species of New World monkeys. Studies that quantify the impact of fragmentation in primate populations, however, are usually done at the patch scale, ignoring the landscape context. Thus, in chapter I, I will analyze the effect of habitat fragmentation on behavioral traits (home range size, daily path, temporal budget and diet composition) of Neotropical primates in relation to landscape composition and configuration. Working at the patch scale in chapters II and III, I will use the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus), an endemic primate of São Paulo Atlantic Forest that is threatened due to fragmentation, as model species to answer the following questions: 1) How are habitat use by the species and its movement patterns influenced by the forest structure, type of fragment (continuous area, small compact and small dendritic) and seasonal variations? 2) Are the path choices made by L. chrysopygus related to energy economy? I will collect ecological data from wild groups of L. chrysopygus living in three landscapes with distinct fragmentation contexts. Data collection will be made using telemetry (VHG and GPS collars) and biologging devices (Daily Diary loggers). Using a combination of linear and generalized linear mixed models and step selection functions I will test the influence of environmental variables on the movement and space use patterns, including the influence of structural forest traits and the relation between the path choices and energy expenditure. I conclude by combining my results to present an improved understanding of the effects of landscape structure and fragmentation on Neotropical primate populations.

 

Contact: gabi.c.rezende@gmail.com

 

 

 

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