Numerous studies have shown that baboon DPLs respond to extrinsic changes in biotic and abiotic factors, attributed to the highly seasonal environments in which they live, and also to intrinsic social factors. Brachyteles arachnoides hypoxanthus, Colobus badius tephrosceles, Gorilla spp., ).Д«aboons ( Papio spp.) range throughout sub-Saharan Africa, across a multitude of habitat types making them the most widespread African primate genus and perhaps coincidentally, are one of the best studied primates, particularly with respect to DPL. Note, however, that primates with a more leaf-based and herbaceous diet lessens the effect of group-size on DPLs because the spatial-temporal distribution of leaves is more homogenous (e.g. Increasing primate group sizes also results in longer DPLs since larger groups experience greater intragroup feeding competition and exhaust food patches quicker, forcing more frequent travel between patches. Similarly, recent studies have demonstrated that remotely sensed data, particularly the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), provides an adequate measure of photosynthetic activity and, therefore, vegetation structure, which can hence be used to further understand primate movement ecology. Since plant biomass and net plant productivity can be reliably inferred from rainfall data, especially in seasonal habitats, rainfall can be used as an indirect measure of food resources and predicts primate DPLs. In general, primates tend towards an energy maximising strategy whereby, in response to low food availability, they increase their DPLs in search of higher quality food items.

Like most mammals, primate ranging behaviours are primarily influenced by the distribution and abundance of essential resources, specifically food, but a suite of other factors are also important. For example, DPLs provide the basis of analyses of mammalian day range, and some of the most comprehensive studies of what determines how far animals travel have been undertaken on primates. The simple parameters required to quantify DPL make it easily transferable and applicable to terrestrial and/or arboreal animals, thus affording comparative investigations of DPL across species. This distance is described as the Day Path Length (DPL). We do not find any effect of season or the abundance of fruit resources on the movement characteristics or DPL of Issa baboons, but find that baboons moved less during periods of high fruit availability.ДЄ simple, but revealing measure of an animalвЂ™s space use is the distance it moves within a 24-hour period. We show that our continental-scale model is a good predictor of DPL in Issa baboons, and that troops move significantly slower, and over shorter distances, on warmer days. We then explore DPLs and movement characteristics (the speed and distribution of turning angles) for yellow baboons ( Papio cynocephalus) at a local scale, in the Issa Valley of western Tanzania.

Troops that experience higher average monthly rainfall and anthropogenic influences have significantly shorter DPL, whilst troops that live in areas with higher average annual temperatures have significantly longer DPL. We find that variation in baboon DPLs is predicted by ecological dissimilarity across the genus range. At the continental scale we explore the ecological determinants of annual mean DPL for 47 baboon troops across 23 different populations, updating a classic study by Dunbar (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31: 35-49, 1992).

A new dawn troop trees