Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Millette, James Burns

Titel

Behavioral responses to tooth loss in ring-tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta) at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve, Madagascar

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Severe dental wear and tooth loss is often assumed to impede the processing, mechanical breakdown and energetic conversion of food items, thereby negatively impacting individual health, reproduction and survival. Ring-tailed lemurs at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve demonstrate exceptionally high frequencies of severe dental wear and antemortem tooth loss, yet often survive a number of years with these impairments. Preliminary data suggest these ring-tailed lemurs may mitigate tooth loss with behavioral adjustments. To test this hypothesis, I collected 191 hours of observational data from 16 focal subjects, eight without tooth loss and eight with 3% to 44% loss. I predicted individuals demonstrating loss would (1) increase maintenance behaviors associated with food intake and/or tooth use while reducing resting and movement, (2) more frequently process foods upon the anterior toothrow and/or process foods using licking, and (3) engage in longer feeding bouts. Daily activity budgets were similar except during early afternoon (12:00-14:30hr), when individuals with tooth loss demonstrated trends towards higher frequencies of foraging and grooming, while individuals without loss rested significantly more often. Individuals with tooth loss maintained higher levels of feeding and foraging throughout the day compared to those with no loss. These individuals also licked tamarind fruit (Tamarindus indica) at significantly higher frequencies, indicating that they spend more time softening it prior to ingestion. These individuals did not demonstrate longer feeding bouts overall, although bouts involving tamarind fruit were significantly longer. Lemurs with higher toothcomb wear spent more time both allogrooming and autogrooming, indicating they were behaviorally compensating for reduced grooming efficiency. These observations support the hypothesis that ring-tailed lemurs balance compensatory behaviors with constraints imposed by living in a social group. Additionally, individuals demonstrating toothcomb wear engaged in significantly higher rates of bi-directional allogrooming, demonstrating that these lemurs utilize social behaviors to compensate for reduced grooming efficiency. These data provide a comparative context for interpreting dental impairment in fossil hominins and other extinct primates.