Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

that this was destructive behaviour, in that fruit was eaten before having had a
chance to mature and the tree was thus prevented from producing seeds. Four
interviewees specified a single most important food species: in two cases this was
iziari (Manilkara bidentata), in two others ma'arasao (not identified). Only one
interviewee considered a seasonal food shortage to affect this species: according to
him, this occurs in the dry season when koobiki and dyakara (both species of Inga)
are the main sources of food.
Each interviewee gave a slightly different range of group sizes, but these answers
all overlapped and can be regarded as consistent. The smallest range suggested was
15-20, which was encompassed within those of all other responses. Two interviewees
gave a minimum group size of 8, two gave a maximum size of 20 while other maxima
were 30, 40 and 50. This suggests a consensus of groups ranging from 8 to 40 in
size, with 15 to 20 being the most common. Two interviewees described a fusion-
fission pattern of social organisation in which groups disperse into smaller feeding
subgroups comprising small numbers of individuals, and aggregate at particularly
ample food sources. Both considered this pattern to be a strategy for coping with the
variable abundance of fruit, many trees providing too little to feed the entire group. A
further interviewee mentioned that, owing to the large size of the social group, they
will consume all the fruit on a tree on a single visit. Both the aforementioned
interviewees also stated that groups sleep in a dispersed pattern, sometimes on
different trees. These two were also the only interviewees to claim the use of home
ranges, for which they suggested similar sizes (two miles and two-and-a-half miles
respectively); both also noted that these home ranges were not exclusive to a single
group.
Information on habitat use was roughly consistent. Two interviewees stated that
this species lives only in high forest and is not found in the farming area, while
another stated that they require large areas of forest and are therefore absent from
forest islands. A fourth interviewee said they resided (meaning the location of
nocturnal resting places) in mountains, but often descended to lower-lying areas
during the course of the day's foraging.
All three informants giving information on reproductive behaviour agreed that a
single young is born. Two of these also said that parturition takes place at a particular
time of year; however the times they suggested for this differed.
Four interviewees gave information on predators, and all of these listed the harpy
eagle (although the term used, kokoi, is also a generic term for eagles). Two of
these each listed a further species of predator - the powis eagle in one case, and oao