Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T05:31:57.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fragment quality and distribution of the arboreal primate Propithecus verreauxi in the spiny forest of south Madagascar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Ivan Norscia  and
Elisabetta Palagi
Ivan Norscia*
Affiliation:
Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio, Centro Interdipartimentale, Università di Pisa, Via Roma, 79, 56011, Calci (PI), Italy
Elisabetta Palagi*
Affiliation:
Unit of Cognitive Primatology and Primate Center, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: norscia@hotmail.com
*Corresponding author. Email: norscia@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The increasing proportion of the landscape used by humans has led, and is still leading, to the conversion of the original habitat into numerous small patches, often separated by a matrix of inhospitable land-uses. This habitat fragmentation is a major threat to biological diversity and is considered to be the primary cause of the present species extinction crisis (Aurambout et al. 2005). Survival in fragments is related to both intrinsic factors, such as abundance and sex ratio, and extrinsic factors related to patch quality (Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007). At first, the fragmentation process can randomly distribute animals among forest patches and across fragmented habitat and surrounding matrix (Marsh 2003, Tischendorf et al. 2005). Local populations can survive only if the colonized forest remnants are adequate and/or dispersal is possible (Marsh 2003). Subsequently, a non-random distribution can result from local populations either remaining connected but distinct (metapopulation) or merging into a single large but patchy population (Harrison & Taylor 1997). Such distribution can be dictated by different aspects of fragment quality, including size and vegetation variables (e.g. tree species diversity, large-tree abundance and food plant availability) (Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007). The mutual relationship among variables and their linkage to animal abundance have proven difficult to disentangle and mammals largely diverge in their response to different fragment quality aspects (Irwin 2008, Ramanamanjato & Ganzhorn 2001, Rovero & Struhsaker 2007).

Keywords

BerentyDidieraceaefragmentationlemurMadagascarprosimiansifaka
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 103 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

AURAMBOUT, J. P., ENDRESS, A. G. & DEAL, B. M. 2005. A spatial model to estimate habitat fragmentation and its consequences on long-term persistence of animal populations. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 109:199–225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ELMQVIST, T., PYYKÖNEN, M., TENGÖ, N., RAKOTONDRASOA, F., RABAKONANDRIANINA, E. & RADIMILAHY, C. 2007. Patterns of loss and regeneration of tropical dry forest in Madagascar: the social institutional context. Plos One 2 (5), e402, DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0000402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
GANZHORN, J. U. 1995. Low-level forest disturbance effects on primary production, leaf chemistry, and lemur populations. Ecology 76:2048–2096.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HARRISON, S. & TAYLOR, A. D. 1997. Empirical evidence in metapopulation dynamics. Pp. 27–42 in Hanski, I. A. & Gilpin, M. E. (eds.). Metapopulation biology: ecology, genetics and evolution. Academic Press, San Diego.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IRWIN, M. T. 2008. Diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema) ranging and habitat use in continuous and fragmented forest: higher density but lower viability in fragments? Biotropica 40:231–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
JOLLY, A., KOYAMA, N., RASAMIMANANA, H., CROWLEY, H. & WILLIAMS, G. 2006. Berenty Reserve: a research site in southern Madagascar. Pp. 32–42 in Jolly, A., Sussman, R. W., Koyama, N. & Rasamimanana, H. (eds.). Ringtailed lemur biology: Lemur catta in Madagascar. Springer Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARSH, L. K. 2003. The nature of fragmentation. Pp. 1–10 in Marsh, L. K. (ed.). Primates in fragments: ecology and conservation. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MÜLLER, P., VELO, A., RAHELIARISOA, E. O., ZARAMODY, A. & CURTIS, D. J. 2000. Surveys of sympatric lemurs at Anjamena, north-west Madagascar. African Journal of Ecology 38:248–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORSCIA, I. 2008. Pilot survey of avahi population (woolly lemurs) in littoral forest fragments of southeast Madagascar. Primates 49:85–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NORSCIA, I. & PALAGI, E. 2008. Berenty 2006: census of Propithecus verreauxi and possible evidence of population stress. International Journal of Primatology 29:1099–1115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORSCIA, I., CARRAI, V. & BORGOGNINI-TARLI, S. M. 2006. Influence of dry season and food quality and quantity on behavior and feeding strategy of Propithecus verreauxi in Kirindy, Madagascar. International Journal of Primatology 27:1001–1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
QUÉMÉRÉ, E., CHAMPEAU, J., BESOLO, A., RASOLONDRAIBE, E., RABARIVOLA, C., CROUAU-ROY, B. & CHIKHI, L. 2009. Spatial variation in density and total size estimates in fragmented primate populations: the golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli). American Journal of Primatology 71:1–9.Google Scholar
RAMANAMANJATO, J. B. & GANZHORN, J. U. 2001. Effects of forest fragmentation, introduced Rattus rattus and the role of exotic tree plantations and secondary vegetation for the conservation of an endemic rodent and a small lemur in littoral forests of southern Madagascar. Animal Conservation 4:175–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROVERO, F. & STRUHSAKER, T. T. 2007. Vegetative predictors of primate abundance: utility and limitations of a fine-scale analysis. American Journal of Primatology 69:1242–1256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
TISCHENDORF, L., GREZ, A., ZAVIEZO, T. & FAHRIG, L. 2005. Mechanisms affecting population density in fragmented habitat. Ecology and Society 10 (1):7. URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol10/iss1/art7/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WEHR, J. 2010. The diet and activity budgets of the white sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) in the unprotected forests of Ifotaka, Madagascar. Master's Thesis, San Diego State University. Montezuma Press, San Diego. 81 pp.Google Scholar