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Impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on primate ecology
  • Diriba Serdo
Diriba Serdo
Ambo University College of Natural and Computational Sciences

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Human impacts are the major threat to health and well-being of forest animals. Primates are particularly vulnerable to various anthropogenic disturbances; therefore, in all taxa, they are threatened by various human factors. This review summarizes anthropogenic factors such as forest fragmentation, degradation, logging, direct human interactions, and primate responses by reviewing the results presented in various research papers. Humans are changing landscapes around the world through overexploitation and consumption of natural resources. Behavior changes in food composition and diversity, population density, group size, and the adult gender relationship in groups are some examples. Habitat fragmentation is a landscape-scale process in which continuous habitat is broken down into small pieces scattered in a non-habitat matrix, which can lead to the loss of many primate species. In general, human invasion can result in habitat loss and fragmentation into various fragments. In addition, primate fragment-scale responses can vary significantly in landscapes of different habitats and composition. Study on primate diversity in the African continent shows that primate species have shown a classical species-area relationship, and of primate species that may become extinct in the country due to deforestation. In this review, I provide clear and consistent terminology to help future studies precisely address the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on primates and to help to form a body of literature where comparisons among studies are possible.