The costs and benefits of coexistence: What determines people's willingness to live near nonhuman primates?

Living near primate species has positive and negative outcomes for human communities. While most studies focus on understanding people's perceptions regarding the adverse consequences of interacting with primates, less is known about people's willingness to coexist with primates or reasons that may promote human-primate coexistence. We surveyed 794 people co-living with four different primate species-rhesus macaque Macaca mulatta, bonnet macaque Macaca radiata, lion-tailed macaque Macaca silenus, and Hanuman langur Semnopithecus dussumieri-in southern and western India to understand how people perceived the costs and benefits of coexistence.

Selecting between iron-rich and clay-rich soils: a geophagy field experiment with black-and-white colobus monkeys in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda.

Geophagy, the intentional consumption of soil, has been observed in humans and numerous other animal species. Geophagy has been posited to be adaptive, i.e.

Geophagy among East African Chimpanzees: consumed soils provide protection from plant secondary compounds and bioavailable iron.

Geophagy, the intentional consumption of earth materials, has been recorded in humans and other animals. It has been hypothesized that geophagy is an adaptive behavior, and that clay minerals commonly found in eaten soil can provide protection from toxins and/or supplement micronutrients. To test these hypotheses, we monitored chimpanzee geophagy using camera traps in four permanent sites at the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda, from October 2015-October 2016.

Geophagy among nonhuman primates: A systematic review of current knowledge and suggestions for future directions.

Objectives: Geophagy, the intentional consumption of earth, is widely practiced among humans and other mammals, but its causes are not well understood. Given the growing number of reports of geophagy among nonhuman primates (NHP), we sought to (1) advance and codify our understanding of the patterns and functional and evolutionary significance of geophagy among NHP and (2) provide a research agenda for a more unified approach to its study.

Methods: We systematically reviewed all available literature on NHP geophagy, extracted available data on taxa, geography, climate, diet, sex, age-class, reproductive status, and the characteristics of the earth.

Soil eaten by chacma baboons adsorbs polar plant secondary metabolites representative of those found in their diet.

Geophagy, the deliberate consumption of earth materials, is common among humans and animals. However, its etiology and function(s) remain poorly understood. The major hypotheses about its adaptive functions are the supplementation of essential elements and the protection against temporary and chronic gastrointestinal (GI) distress.

Molecular identification of Oesophagostomum spp. from 'village' chimpanzees in Uganda and their phylogenetic relationship with those of other primates.

Oesophagostomum spp. are parasitic nematodes of mammals, including humans and other primates. To identify species and determine phylogeny, we analysed DNA sequences of adult and larval Oesophagostomum from wild chimpanzees in Bulindi, Uganda, which inhabit degraded forest fragments amid villages.

Soil consumed by chacma baboons is low in bioavailable iron and high in clay.

Despite widespread consumption of soil among animals, the role of geophagy in health maintenance remains an enigma. It has been hypothesized that animals consume soil for supplementation of minerals and protection against toxins. Most studies determine only the total elemental composition of soil, which may not reflect the amount of minerals available to the consumer.

Parasite transmission risk from geophagic and foraging behavior in chacma baboons.

Numerous behavioral and ecological factors are associated with parasite transmission. One factor explored in human research, but absent from nonhuman primate research, is parasite transmission from soil ingestion. Human studies suggest geophagy, the regular and deliberate consumption of soil, increases risk of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection.

Evaluating home range techniques: use of Global Positioning System (GPS) collar data from chacma baboons.

Global Positioning System (GPS) collars have revolutionized the field of spatial ecology, but to date, few primate studies have used them. We fitted a free-ranging, semi-habituated, juvenile male chacma baboon (Papio hamadryas ursinus) with an automatic self-releasing GPS collar and tracked his movements for 359 days. The collar captured 4254 fixes out of 5719 programmed opportunities, a 74.

Geophagy in chacma baboons: patterns of soil consumption by age class, sex, and reproductive state.

Despite baboons' widespread distribution across Africa, geophagy among all subspecies has been poorly documented. We used video camera traps and soil analyses to investigate geophagy in chacma baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) inhabiting the Western Cape of South Africa. During an 18-month study, from August 2009 to January 2011, we continually monitored the largest and most frequently visited geophagy sites with camera traps for 545 days and captured soil consumption at one or more sites on 266 of those days (49%).