Fruit‐feeding and activity patterns of mountain gorillas ( Gorilla beringei beringei ) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID8317418
AuthorsKelly R Ostrofsky (0000-0002-7158-546X, Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology The George Washington University Washington District of Columbia USA, corresponding author), M M Robbins (0000-0002-6037-7542, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
Year2020
Volume173
Issue1
Pages3-20
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.24056
PMID32274796
OpenAlexW3015449506
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited116

OBJECTIVES: Availability of fruit is an important factor influencing variation in great ape foraging strategies and activity patterns. This study aims to quantify how frugivory influences activity budgets across age-sex classes of mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Daily proportions of fruit-feeding and activity budgets were calculated using 6 years of observational data on four habituated groups. We fitted generalized linear mixed models to test for age-sex differences in the amount of fruit-feeding, and to test whether these factors influence the proportion of time spent feeding, resting, and traveling. RESULTS: Bwindi mountain gorillas spent on average 15% of feeding time consuming fruit, with monthly variation ranging from 0 to 70%. Greater amounts of fruit-feeding were associated with more time feeding and traveling, and less time resting. Immatures tended to spend more feeding time on fruit than adults, but less overall time feeding and more time traveling. There were no significant differences in the amount of fruit-feeding and overall feeding time between adult females and silverback males, despite differences in body size. DISCUSSION: This study confirms that gorillas are frugivorous, and only the Virunga mountain gorilla population can be characterized as highly folivorous. Along with other frugivorous great apes, Bwindi mountain gorillas alter their activity patterns in response to varying amounts of fruit in their diet. A better understanding of how variable ecological conditions can drive diversity even within a subspecies has important implications for understanding relationships between ecology, body size, and foraging strategies in great apes

Biology · Foraging · Frugivore · Geography · Gorilla · Habitat · National park · Nectar · Pongidae · Population · Zoology · Demography · Ecology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Primate Behavior and Ecology · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

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