WALTON, BENJAMIN,JOHN (2024) Dynamics of crop-foraging by chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) on commercial farms in South Africa. Doctoral thesis, Durham University.
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Abstract
Human influence on earth ecosystems is bringing wildlife into increasing contact with people and anthropogenic landscapes. Animals with a high degree of behavioural and dietary flexibility, such as primates, can exploit anthropogenic environments such as agricultural areas for high-energy food. However, this can result in negative interactions with humans, leading to significant risks for crop-foraging wildlife, including injury and death. How animals balance these risks and rewards through behaviour and how this impacts space use, group dynamics, and energetic expenditure, remain poorly understood, yet can provide insights for promoting human-wildlife coexistence. I explore the responses of crop-foraging chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) to the risks and rewards of inhabiting a commercial agricultural landscape in South Africa, using GPS and accelerometer dataloggers to investigate their movements and behaviour alongside people hired to guard crops from animals. I found that baboons avoided fields, suggesting they were perceived as risky, and therefore that deterrents are effective. Investigating the crop-foraging of one baboon over the period of a year, I found that use of fields increased when natural vegetation was low, suggesting crops may be a ‘fallback food’. Baboons showed variable risk responses to areas close to the field; pilot data from a single baboon indicated low activity near the field edge, but baboons in my main study groups had heightened activity to around 300 m beyond the field, possibly reflecting differing management practices between farms. In the two groups that formed the focus of my research, most crop-foraging was conducted by a small number of baboons, primarily adult males, that moved away from the social group to crop-forage, entering fields in subgroups or alone. These baboons used a time-minimisation approach to reduce risk and maximise reward when foraging on crops, entering fields for short time periods at high activity, remaining close to the field edge and therefore refuge, and avoiding people hired to guard crops. This had energetic costs for baboons in the short-term, but significant crop-foraging appeared to provide sufficient energy to allow baboons to reduce overall activity at daily timescales. These energetic costs taken alongside the lack of crop-foraging by most baboons suggests that crop-foraging may be on the cusp of profitability for baboons, due to existing management. I discuss these findings and their implications for reducing crop losses to baboons and primates in other contexts globally.
Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
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Award: | Doctor of Philosophy |
Keywords: | Conservation; Behaviour; Primates; Crop-raiding; Movement |
Faculty and Department: | Faculty of Social Sciences and Health > Anthropology, Department of |
Thesis Date: | 2024 |
Copyright: | Copyright of this thesis is held by the author |
Deposited On: | 20 Jan 2025 09:36 |