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7 - Day length seasonality and the thermal environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2009

By
Russell Hill
Edited by
Diane K. Brockman  and
Carel P. van Schaik
Russell Hill
Affiliation:
Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group Department of Anthropology University of Durham 43 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN UK
Diane K. Brockman
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Carel P. van Schaik
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
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Summary

Introduction

The importance of high ambient temperatures and intense solar radiation for the evolution of hominids in open savanna habitats has been the subject of considerable interest. A series of studies has considered the thermoregulatory advantages related to bipedalism (Wheeler 1991), loss of functional body hair (Wheeler 1992a), body size (Wheeler 1992b), physique (Wheeler 1993), and shade-seeking behavior (Wheeler 1994a). Furthermore, these papers have generated considerable debate (Porter 1993; Chaplin et al. 1994; Wheeler 1994b; do Amaral 1996; Wheeler 1996). It is surprising, therefore, that the importance of the thermoregulation in primate behavioral ecology has received comparatively little attention, with the body of former work focusing on other ecological factors such as food availability (Stelzner 1988). Nevertheless, a number of studies have reported primates to alter their activity schedules in response to thermoregulatory needs (baboons, Papio spp. [Stolz & Saayman 1970]; gelada, Theropithecus gelada [Iwamoto & Dunbar 1983]; pigtail macaques, Macaca nemestrina [Bernstein 1972]; sooty mangabeys, Cercocebus atys [Bernstein 1976]; chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes [Wrangham 1977]; gorillas, Gorilla gorilla [Fossey & Harcourt 1977]). However, in most cases, these studies have invoked post-hoc thermoregulatory interpretations, and few have examined explicitly the importance of the thermal environment under natural conditions.

The most detailed studies of thermoregulation in wild primates have been conducted on baboons (e.g. Stelzner & Hausfater [1986], Stelzner [1988], Brain & Mitchell [1999], Pochron [2000], and Hill [2005]).

Type
Chapter
Information
Seasonality in Primates
Studies of Living and Extinct Human and Non-Human Primates
 , pp. 197 - 214
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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