Rates of human–macaque interactions affect grooming behavior among urban‐dwelling rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

OBJECTIVES: The impact of anthropogenic environmental changes may impose strong pressures on the behavioral flexibility of free-ranging animals. Here, we examine whether rates of interactions with humans had both a direct and indirect influence on the duration and distribution of social grooming in commensal rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data were collected in two locations in the city of Shimla in northern India: an urban setting and a temple area. We divided these two locations in a series of similar-sized physical blocks (N = 48) with varying rates of human-macaque interactions. We conducted focal observations on three free-ranging rhesus macaque groups, one in the urban area and two in the temple area. RESULTS: Our analysis shows that macaques engaged in shorter grooming bouts and were more vigilant while grooming in focal sessions during which they interacted with people more frequently, suggesting that humans directly affected grooming effort and vigilance behavior. Furthermore, we found that in blocks characterized by higher rates of human-macaque interactions grooming bouts were shorter, more frequently interrupted by vigilance behavior, and were less frequently reciprocated. DISCUSSION: Our work shows that the rates of human-macaque interaction had both a direct and indirect impact on grooming behavior and that macaques flexibly modified their grooming interactions in relation to the rates of human-macaque interaction to which they were exposed. Because grooming has important social and hygienic functions in nonhuman primates, our work suggests that human presence can have important implications for animal health, social relationships and, ultimately, fitness. Our results point to the need of areas away from people even for highly adaptable species where they can engage in social interactions without human disruption.National Science Foundatio

The macronutrient composition of wild and cultivated plant foods of West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus ) inhabiting an anthropogenic landscape

Agricultural expansion encroaches on tropical forests and primates in such landscapes frequently incorporate crops into their diet. Understanding the nutritional drivers behind crop‐foraging can help inform conservation efforts to improve human‐primate coexistence. This study builds on existing knowledge of primate diets in anthropogenic landscapes by estimating the macronutrient content of 24 wild and 11 cultivated foods (90.5% of food intake) consumed by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) at Bossou, Guinea, West Africa. We also compared the macronutrient composition of Bossou crops to published macronutrient measures of crops from Bulindi, Uganda, East Africa. The composition of wild fruits, leaves, and pith were consistent with previous reports for primate diets. Cultivated fruits were higher in carbohydrates and lower in insoluble fiber than wild fruits, while wild fruits were higher in protein. Macronutrient content of cultivated pith fell within the ranges of consumed wild pith. Oil palm food parts were relatively rich in carbohydrates, protein, lipids, and/or fermentable fiber, adding support for the nutritional importance of the oil palm for West African chimpanzees. We found no differences in the composition of cultivated fruits between Bossou and Bulindi, suggesting that macronutrient content alone does not explain differences in crop selection. Our results build on the current understanding of chimpanzee feeding ecology within forest‐agricultural mosaics and provide additional support for the assumption that crops offer primates energetic benefits over wild foods

Similarity analysis of the momentum field of a subsonic, plane air jet with varying jet-exit and local Reynolds numbers

A similarity analysis is presented of the momentum field of a subsonic, plane air jet over the range of the jet-exit Reynolds number Reh (≡ Ubh/υ where Ub is the area-averaged exit velocity, h the slot height, and υ the kinematic viscosity) = 1500 − 16 500. In accordance with similarity principles, the mass flow rates, shear-layer momentum thicknesses, and integral length scales corresponding to the size of large-scale coherent eddy structures are found to increase linearly with the downstream distance from the nozzle exit (x) for all Reh. The autocorrelation measurements performed in the near jet confirmed reduced scale of the larger coherent eddies for increased Reh. The mean local Reynolds number, measured on the centerline and turbulent local Reynolds number measured in the shear-layer increases non-linearly following x^(1/2), and so does the Taylor microscale local Reynolds number that scales as x^(1/4). Consequently, the comparatively larger local Reynolds number for jets produced at higher Reh causes self-preservation of the fluctuating velocity closer to the nozzle exit plane. The near-field region characterized by over-shoots in turbulent kinetic energy spectra confirms the presence of large-scale eddy structures in the energy production zone. However, the faster rate of increase of the local Reynolds number with increasing x for jets measured at larger Reh is found to be associated with a wider inertial sub-range of the compensated energy spectra, where the −5/3 power law is noted. The downstream region corresponding to the production zone persists for longer x/h for jets measured at lower Reh. As Reh is increased, the larger width of the sub-range confirms the narrower dissipative range within the energy spectra. The variations of the dissipation rate (ε) of turbulent kinetic energy and the Kolmogorov (η) and Taylor (λ) microscales all obey similarity relationships, εh/Ub^(3)∼ Re^(3), η/h ∼ Re^(−3/4) and λ/h ∼ Re (-1/2). Finally, the underlying physical mechanisms related to discernible self-similar states and flow structures due to disparities in Reh and local Reynolds number is discussed

Evolution of the assassin's arms: Insights from a phylogeny of combined transcriptomic and ribosomal DNA data (Heteroptera: Reduvioidea)

10.1038/srep22177Scientific Reports62217

UCE_alignments

Zip of individual UCE loci alignments from MAFFT in nexus format, output of internal_trim.sh and internal_trim_empIns.sh scripts, for input into Gblocks

UCE_loci

Zip of .fasta and .incomplete files of UCE loci identified. Output from extract_fasta.sh and extract_fasta_empIns.sh scripts. Used as input for internal_trim.sh and internal_trim_empIns.sh scripts respectively

phyluce_workflow

Text file of script usage workflow of the analyses performed in PHYLUCE and RAxML