Authors: Maria A van Noordwijk Natasha Arora Erik P Willems Lynda P Dunkel Rahmalia N Amda Neneng Mardianah Corinne Ackermann Michael Krützen Carel P van Schaik
Publish Date: 2012/03/01
Volume: 66, Issue: 6, Pages: 823-834
Abstract
Female philopatry in mammals is generally associated with ecological and sometimes social benefits and often with dispersal by males Previous studies on dispersal patterns of orangutans largely nongregarious Asian great apes have yielded conflicting results Based on 7 years of observational data and mitochondrial and nuclear DNA analyses on fecal samples of 41 adult Bornean orangutans Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii from the Tuanan population we provide both genetic and behavioral evidence for male dispersal and female philopatry Although maternally related adult female dyads showed similar homerange overlap as unrelated dyads females spent much more time in association with known maternal relatives than with other females While in association offspring of maternally related females frequently engaged in social play whereas mothers actively prevented this during encounters with unrelated mothers suggesting that unrelated females may pose a threat to infants Having trustworthy neighbors may therefore be a social benefit of philopatry that may be common among solitary mammals thus reinforcing female philopatric tendencies in such species The results also illustrate the diversity in dispersal patterns found within the greatape lineageWe are grateful to the Indonesian Institute of Science LIPI the Indonesian State Ministry for Research and Technology RisTek the Director General Departemen Kehutanan PHKA Departamen Dalam Negri the local government in Central Kalimantan the BKSDA Palangkaraya the Bornean Orangutan Survival Foundation BOSF and MAWAS in Palangkaraya for their permission and support to conduct this research We also thank the Fakultas Biologi Universitas Nasional UNAS in Jakarta for their collaboration and support for the Tuanan project and in particular drs Tatang Mitra Setia and dr Suci Utami Atmoko and we gratefully acknowledge the collaboration of dr Joko Pamungkas of PSSPIPB with permit arrangements for the genetic samples We are indebted to field team and in particular Pak Rahmatd and Pak Yandi for their help with collecting data and samples in the field We thank Claude Rosselet and Pascal Marty for their work on the ArcGis database and Alex Nater Elvira Schneider and Moritz Fischer for their contributions to the genetic analyses We thank the reviewers and David Watts for their constructive comments on the manuscript Samples were exported from Indonesia to Switzerland under permits 07279/IV/SATSLN/2009 00961/IV/SATSLN/2007 from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora For major financial support we thank the University of Zurich and the AH Schultz Stiftung
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