Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Old World monkeys: three decades of development and change in the study of the Cercopithecoidea
- 2 The molecular systematics of the Cercopithecidae
- 3 Molecular genetic variation and population structure in Papio baboons
- 4 The phylogeny of the Cercopithecoidea
- 5 Ontogeny of the nasal capsule in cercopithecoids: a contribution to the comparative and evolutionary morphology of catarrhines
- 6 Old World monkey origins and diversification: an evolutionary study of diet and dentition
- 7 Geological context of fossil Cercopithecoidea from eastern Africa
- 8 The oro-facial complex in macaques: tongue and jaw movements in feeding
- 9 Evolutionary morphology of the skull in Old World monkeys
- 10 Evolutionary endocrinology of the cercopithecoids
- 11 Behavioral ecology and socioendocrinology of reproductive maturation in cercopithecine monkeys
- 12 Quantitative assessment of occlusal wear and age estimation in Ethiopian and Tanzanian baboons
- 13 Maternal investment throughout the life span in Old World monkeys
- 14 Cognitive capacities of Old World monkeys based on studies of social behavior
- 15 The effects of predation and habitat quality on the socioecology of African monkeys: lessons from the islands of Bioko and Zanzibar
- 16 The loud calls of black-and-white colobus monkeys: their adaptive and taxonomic significance in light of new data
- 17 Agonistic and affiliative relationships in a blue monkey group
- 18 Locomotor behavior in Ugandan monkeys
- 19 The behavioral ecology of Asian colobines
- Index
19 - The behavioral ecology of Asian colobines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Old World monkeys: three decades of development and change in the study of the Cercopithecoidea
- 2 The molecular systematics of the Cercopithecidae
- 3 Molecular genetic variation and population structure in Papio baboons
- 4 The phylogeny of the Cercopithecoidea
- 5 Ontogeny of the nasal capsule in cercopithecoids: a contribution to the comparative and evolutionary morphology of catarrhines
- 6 Old World monkey origins and diversification: an evolutionary study of diet and dentition
- 7 Geological context of fossil Cercopithecoidea from eastern Africa
- 8 The oro-facial complex in macaques: tongue and jaw movements in feeding
- 9 Evolutionary morphology of the skull in Old World monkeys
- 10 Evolutionary endocrinology of the cercopithecoids
- 11 Behavioral ecology and socioendocrinology of reproductive maturation in cercopithecine monkeys
- 12 Quantitative assessment of occlusal wear and age estimation in Ethiopian and Tanzanian baboons
- 13 Maternal investment throughout the life span in Old World monkeys
- 14 Cognitive capacities of Old World monkeys based on studies of social behavior
- 15 The effects of predation and habitat quality on the socioecology of African monkeys: lessons from the islands of Bioko and Zanzibar
- 16 The loud calls of black-and-white colobus monkeys: their adaptive and taxonomic significance in light of new data
- 17 Agonistic and affiliative relationships in a blue monkey group
- 18 Locomotor behavior in Ugandan monkeys
- 19 The behavioral ecology of Asian colobines
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter will focus on the relationships among physiology, behavior, and ecology in the Asian colobine monkeys. Colobines are known for their specialized digestive physiology, including, especially, their unique sacculated stomach containing anaerobic cellulytic bacteria (Bauchop and Martucci, 1968). This physiological specialization allows them to extract nutrients from foliage more efficiently, but digestive efficiency via microbial fermentation has a cost: a slower rate of digestion. This, combined with a small size (when compared to other animals utilizing microbial symbionts), limits colobines' gross intake of food, and forces them to balance the quality and the quantity of food ingested. The costs and benefits of the colobine digestive system have a profound impact on social structure and ecology, underlying social relationships, home range size, population density, activity patterns, and intergroup interactions as well as diet. For example, the ability to digest low quality food may widen the resource base, directly affecting home range size and intergroup interactions.
In the following review, we emphasize detailed, longer-term studies, many of them only recently completed, which in many cases have clarified our perceptions of this group. The tables summarize information from this literature. We follow the taxonomic classifications of Oates, Davies and Delson (1994) with one exception; we retain the separation of Rhinopithecus and Pygathrix (Jablonski and Peng, 1993; Jablonski, 1995), thus recognizing seven genera.
Social structure
Asian colobines are typically organized into one-male social groups (one male, several females, and offspring).
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- Old World Monkeys , pp. 496 - 521Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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