Article (Scientific journals)
Toward a better understanding of habituation process to human observer: A statistical approach in Macaca leonina (Primates: Cercopithecidea)
Gazagne, Eva; Hambuckers, Alain; Savini, Tommaso et al.
2020In Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 68 (2020), p. 735-749
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Keywords :
habituation process; Macaca leonina; multinomial logit regression; Thailand; degraded habitat
Abstract :
[en] Habituation allows an observer to closely approach and follow free-ranging animals, as they no longer respond to the observer presence (e.g., through flight, avoidance, display, curiosity). While habituation is implicitly acknowledged as a necessary step before any direct observational studies of primates, there is very little published data on the subject. The aim of this study is to analyse the habituation process over time (17 months) in a wildfeeding troop of northern pigtailed macaques (Macaca leonina) inhabiting a degraded forest fragment of the Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve, Thailand. Based on the number of encounters, contact duration with the studied troop, and behavioural responses to the observer recorded ad libitum and via scan sampling, we found statistical evidence of habituation progress over five stages: early, minimal, partial, advanced, and full. The complete habituation process took nearly 13 months. Factors such as the macaques’ limited experience of human contact, semi-terrestriality, large ranging patterns, fission-fusion dynamics, unpredictable resource use, as well as reduced native fruit availability in this degraded forest fragment may explain the length of the process. It was only possible to collect ranging and behavioural data from the partial habituation stage, although these data were biased toward adult males and sub-adults, while overestimating movement behaviour over inactivity and social behaviours. Our results highlight the importance of analysing behavioural data of fully habituated groups of primates to limit biases of observer presence, and also of not underestimating the habituation process length. This study provides novel information on the habituation process in macaques and proposes an effective methodology to analyse the habituation process across a wide range of primate species.
Research Center/Unit :
Unité de Recherche SPHERES
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Gazagne, Eva  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > UR SPHERES- Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Hambuckers, Alain  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > UR SPHERES - Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Savini, Tommaso ;  King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (Bangkok) > Conservation Ecology Program
Poncin, Pascal ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > UR FOCUS - Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Huynen, Marie-Claude ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > UR SPHERES - Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Brotcorne, Fany  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > UR SPHERES - Biologie du comportement - Ethologie et psychologie animale
Language :
English
Title :
Toward a better understanding of habituation process to human observer: A statistical approach in Macaca leonina (Primates: Cercopithecidea)
Alternative titles :
[fr] Vers une meilleure compréhension du processus d'habituation à l'observateur humain: Une approche statistique chez Macaca leonina (Primates: Cercopithecidea)
Publication date :
10 September 2020
Journal title :
Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
ISSN :
0217-2445
Publisher :
National University of Singapore, Singapore
Special issue title :
Conservation & Ecology
Volume :
68
Issue :
2020
Pages :
735-749
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Name of the research project :
Northern Pigtailed Macaque Project
Funders :
ULiège - Université de Liège [BE]
Available on ORBi :
since 11 October 2020

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