The hustle and bustle of city life: monitoring the effects of urbanisation in the African lesser bushbaby

Die Naturwissenschaften
Juan ScheunJulia Nowack

Abstract

Urbanisation has become a severe threat to pristine natural areas, causing habitat loss and affecting indigenous animals. Species occurring within an urban fragmented landscape must cope with changes in vegetation type as well as high degrees of anthropogenic disturbance, both of which are possible key mechanisms contributing to behavioural changes and perceived stressors. We attempted to elucidate the effects of urbanisation on the African lesser bushbaby, Galago moholi, by (1) recording activity budgets and body condition (body mass index, BMI) of individuals of urban and rural populations and (2) further determining adrenocortical activity in both populations as a measure of stress via faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) levels, following successful validation of an appropriate enzyme immunoassay test system (adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge test). We found that both sexes of the urban population had significantly higher BMIs than their rural counterparts, while urban females had significantly higher fGCM concentrations than rural females. While individuals in the urban population fed mainly on provisioned anthropogenic food sources and spent comparatively more time resting and engaging in aggressive interact...Continue Reading

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Citations

Jun 12, 2016·Die Naturwissenschaften·Sven Thatje
Aug 10, 2016·Primates; Journal of Primatology·Derek Engelbrecht
Apr 11, 2019·Primates; Journal of Primatology·J ScheunJ Nowack
Oct 8, 2020·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Maider Iglesias-CarrascoMegan L Head
Oct 11, 2020·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Olivier KaisinLaurence Culot

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