Book contents
- The Colobines
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- The Colobines
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 General Introduction
- 2 Taxonomic Classification of Colobine Monkeys
- 3 The Colobine Fossil Record
- 4 Molecular Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Colobines
- 5 Relationships between the Diet and Dentition of Asian Leaf Monkeys
- 6 Morphology and Physiology of Colobine Digestive Tracts
- 7 Colobine Gut Microbiota
- 8 Colobine Nutritional Ecology
- 9 Red Colobus Natural History
- 10 Natural History of Black-and-White Colobus Monkeys
- 11 Behaviour and Ecology of Olive Colobus
- 12 Ecology and Behaviour of Odd-Nosed Colobines
- 13 Ecology of Semnopithecus
- 14 Ecology of Sympatric and Allopatric Presbytis and Trachypithecus Langurs in Sundaland
- 15 Ecology of Trachypithecus spp. in the Indo-Burmese Region
- 16 Socioecology of Asian Colobines
- 17 Socioecology of African Colobines
- 18 Causes and Consequences of the Formation of Multilevel Societies in Colobines
- 19 Colobine Population Ecology
- 20 State of Asian Colobines and Their Conservation Needs
- 21 Conservation of Africa’s Colobine Monkeys (Cercopithecidae, Colobinae) with Taxonomic and Biogeographic Considerations
- 22 Directions for Future Research
- References
- Index
17 - Socioecology of African Colobines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2022
- The Colobines
- Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology
- The Colobines
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 General Introduction
- 2 Taxonomic Classification of Colobine Monkeys
- 3 The Colobine Fossil Record
- 4 Molecular Phylogeny and Phylogeography of Colobines
- 5 Relationships between the Diet and Dentition of Asian Leaf Monkeys
- 6 Morphology and Physiology of Colobine Digestive Tracts
- 7 Colobine Gut Microbiota
- 8 Colobine Nutritional Ecology
- 9 Red Colobus Natural History
- 10 Natural History of Black-and-White Colobus Monkeys
- 11 Behaviour and Ecology of Olive Colobus
- 12 Ecology and Behaviour of Odd-Nosed Colobines
- 13 Ecology of Semnopithecus
- 14 Ecology of Sympatric and Allopatric Presbytis and Trachypithecus Langurs in Sundaland
- 15 Ecology of Trachypithecus spp. in the Indo-Burmese Region
- 16 Socioecology of Asian Colobines
- 17 Socioecology of African Colobines
- 18 Causes and Consequences of the Formation of Multilevel Societies in Colobines
- 19 Colobine Population Ecology
- 20 State of Asian Colobines and Their Conservation Needs
- 21 Conservation of Africa’s Colobine Monkeys (Cercopithecidae, Colobinae) with Taxonomic and Biogeographic Considerations
- 22 Directions for Future Research
- References
- Index
Summary
Formally, African colobines were not thought to be affected by food competition because mature leaves are relatively evenly distributed and low quality. However, greater research on colobus monkeys has shown that they have varied diets and rarely rely on mature leaves and that within-group scramble and both within- and between-group contest competition for food affects them. Within-group contest competition for resources may be seasonal but appears to be sufficient to lead to dominance hierarchies among females. These dominance hierarchies tend to be individualistic and females typically do not stay with kin to defend food. Unfortunately, there are still little data available to examine whether female dominance hierarchies lead to rank-effects on female energy intake or reproductive rates. In sum, African colobines do not seem fit current socio-ecological models and instead appear to fall somewhere between species with within-group scramble and within-group contest competition, where females disperse despite forming decided dominance relations. This appears to give rise to very specific male strategies, such as male defence of food resources, that may attract females and which alter female social strategies in interesting ways, changing social organization and structure.
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- The ColobinesNatural History, Behaviour and Ecological Diversity, pp. 271 - 292Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022