Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population
Assessments of the status of endangered species have focused on population sizes, often without knowledge of demographic and behavioral processes underlying population recovery. We analyzed demographic data from a 28-year study of a critically endangered primate, the northern muriqui, to investigate...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2012
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3444487/ |
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pubmed-3444487 |
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pubmed-34444872012-10-01 Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population Strier, Karen B. Ives, Anthony R. Research Article Assessments of the status of endangered species have focused on population sizes, often without knowledge of demographic and behavioral processes underlying population recovery. We analyzed demographic data from a 28-year study of a critically endangered primate, the northern muriqui, to investigate possible changes in demographic rates as this population recovered from near extirpation. As the population increased from 60 to nearly 300 individuals, its growth rate declined due to increased mortality and male-biased birth sex ratios; the increased mortality was not uniform across ages and sexes, and there has been a recent increase in mortality of prime-aged males. If not for a concurrent increase in fertility rates, the population would have stabilized at 200 individuals instead of continuing to grow. The unexpected increase in fertility rates and in adult male mortality can be attributed to the muriquis’ expansion of their habitat by spending more time on the ground. The demographic consequences of this behavioral shift must be incorporated into management tactics for this population and emphasize the importance of understanding demographic rates in the recovery of endangered species. Public Library of Science 2012-09-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3444487/ /pubmed/23028534 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044407 Text en © 2012 Strier, Ives http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Strier, Karen B. Ives, Anthony R. |
| spellingShingle |
Strier, Karen B. Ives, Anthony R. Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| author_facet |
Strier, Karen B. Ives, Anthony R. |
| author_sort |
Strier, Karen B. |
| title |
Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| title_short |
Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| title_full |
Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| title_fullStr |
Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population |
| title_sort |
unexpected demography in the recovery of an endangered primate population |
| description |
Assessments of the status of endangered species have focused on population sizes, often without knowledge of demographic and behavioral processes underlying population recovery. We analyzed demographic data from a 28-year study of a critically endangered primate, the northern muriqui, to investigate possible changes in demographic rates as this population recovered from near extirpation. As the population increased from 60 to nearly 300 individuals, its growth rate declined due to increased mortality and male-biased birth sex ratios; the increased mortality was not uniform across ages and sexes, and there has been a recent increase in mortality of prime-aged males. If not for a concurrent increase in fertility rates, the population would have stabilized at 200 individuals instead of continuing to grow. The unexpected increase in fertility rates and in adult male mortality can be attributed to the muriquis’ expansion of their habitat by spending more time on the ground. The demographic consequences of this behavioral shift must be incorporated into management tactics for this population and emphasize the importance of understanding demographic rates in the recovery of endangered species. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3444487/ |
| _version_ |
1611909508051763200 |