Biology subjects

Lonsdorf, E. V.

Publications and source records attributed to Lonsdorf, E. V..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Socially integrated female chimpanzees have lower offspring mortality

In humans and other social mammals, more socially connected females often have higher fitness. Yet evidence linking female sociality to offspring survival remains inconsistent, and is limited to a handful of primate species in which females depend on close female kin for social status. Here we examine the relationship between female social integration and offspring survival in eastern chimpanzees. We find that females that were more socially integrated with other females in the year before giving birth had higher offspring survival to age 1 (the period of highest mortality) and age 5 (the approximate age of weaning). Furthermore, social integration remained a strong predictor of offspring survival among females without close female kin. Our results thus add to a small set of studies linking sociality with offspring survival, here in the dispersing sex. As in humans, more socially connected female chimpanzees have higher offspring survival, despite primarily residing with non-kin.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2022

Viability of carcass removal as an option for offsetting the incidental take of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) at wind energy facilities

As wind energy expands to achieve the United States net zero emission goals, compensatory mitigation will be required to offset negative impacts to birds and bats. The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) is particularly susceptible to collision with wind turbines but only one option for offsetting mortalities has been approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service despite many sources of anthropogenic-caused mortality. Here, we update a previously developed vehicle-collision model with empirical data and integrate a resource equivalency analysis so that removal of road-killed game animals can be used as mitigation to offset incidental mortality. We parameterized the golden eagle behavior parameters using camera-traps placed at roadside carcasses. We quantified the effects of different carcass-removal schemes based on vehicle and carcass characteristics observed for the state of Wyoming. Our model results indicate that while eagles saved per carcass removed depends on removal interval and vehicle traffic volume, carcass removal is a viable mitigation strategy; up to seven eagles could be saved per year in some counties. While some uncertainty remains about the precise credit received from each carcass removed, delaying the inclusion of additional mitigation methods prevents opportunities for conservation action. An adaptive management program could be a way forward where management and monitoring are combined to further improve estimates of mitigation credit.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

Putting pesticides on the map for pollinator research and conservation

Wild and managed pollinators are essential to food production and the function of natural ecosystems; however, their populations are threatened by multiple stressors including pesticide use. Because pollinator species can travel hundreds to thousands of meters to forage, recent research has stressed the importance of evaluating pollinator decline at the landscape scale. However, scientists and conservationists ability to do this has been limited by a lack of accessible data on pesticide use at relevant spatial scales and in toxicological units meaningful to pollinators. Here, we synthesize information from several large, publicly available datasets on pesticide use patterns, land use, and toxicity to generate novel datasets describing pesticide use by active ingredient (kg, 1997-2017) and aggregate insecticide load (kg and honey bee lethal doses, 1997-2014) for state-crop combinations in the contiguous U.S. Furthermore, by linking pesticide datasets with land-use data in the contiguous United States, we describe a method to map pesticide indicators at spatial scales relevant to pollinator research and conservation.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

In vivo deciduous dental eruption in LuiKotale bonobos and Gombe chimpanzees

Existing data on bonobo and chimpanzee dental eruption timing are derived predominantly from captive individuals or deceased wild individuals. However, recent advances in noninvasive photographic monitoring of living, wild apes have greatly expanded our knowledge of chimpanzee dental eruption in relatively healthy individuals under naturalistic conditions. We employ similar methods to expand on this knowledge by reporting deciduous dental eruption ages in living, wild bonobos and chimpanzees from LuiKotale, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gombe National Park, Tanzania, respectively. Deciduous dental eruption ages in our sample generally fall within the range of variation previously documented for captive chimpanzees. We also found substantial variation in deciduous canine eruption timing, particularly among bonobos. One bonobo had a deciduous canine present by 227 days old while another did not have a deciduous canine present at 477 days old. As more data accumulate from these populations, future studies should consider sources of variation in deciduous canine eruption timing and relationships with other aspects of life history.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Beyond orphaned infants: novel effects of maternal death in wild primates

Primate offspring often depend on their mothers well beyond the age of weaning, and offspring that experience maternal death in early life can suffer substantial reductions in fitness across the lifespan. Here we leverage data from eight wild primate populations (seven species) to examine two underappreciated pathways linking early maternal death and offspring fitness that are distinct from direct effects of orphaning on offspring survival. First, we show that, for five of the seven species, offspring face reduced survival during the years immediately preceding maternal death, while the mother is still alive. Second, we identify an intergenerational effect of early maternal loss in three species (muriquis, baboons, and blue monkeys), such that early maternal death experienced in one generation leads to reduced offspring survival in the next. Our results have important implications for the evolution of slow life histories in primates, as they suggest that maternal condition and survival are more important for offspring fitness than previously realized.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Rising insecticide potency outweighs falling application rate to make US farmland increasingly hazardous to insects

Each year, millions of kilograms of insecticides are applied to crops in the US. While insecticide use supports food, fuel, and fiber production, it can also threaten non-target organisms, a concern underscored by mounting evidence of widespread insect decline. Nevertheless, answers to basic questions about the spatiotemporal patterns of insecticide use remain elusive, due in part to the inherent complexity of insecticide use, and exacerbated by the dispersed nature of the relevant data, divided between several government repositories. Here, we integrate these public datasets to generate county-level annual estimates of total insect toxic load (honey bee lethal doses) for insecticides applied in the US between 1997-2012, calculated separately for oral and contact toxicity. To explore the underlying drivers of the observed changes, we divide insect toxic load into the components of extent (area treated) and intensity (application rate x potency). We show that while contact-based insect toxic load remained relatively steady over the period of our analysis, oral-based insect toxic load increased roughly 9-fold, with reductions in application rate outweighed by disproportionate increases in potency (toxicity/kg) and increases in extent. This pattern varied markedly by region, with the greatest increases seen in Heartland and Northern Great Plains regions, likely driven by use of neonicotinoid seed treatments in corn and soybean. In this \"potency paradox,\" US farmland has become more hazardous to insects despite lower volumes of insecticides applied, raising serious concerns about insect conservation and highlighting the importance of integrative approaches to pesticide use monitoring.\n\nSignificance statementPrevious analyses disagree about whether US insecticide use is increasing or decreasing, a question of significant importance given the putative role of insecticides in recent insect declines. We integrated information from multiple national databases to estimate insect toxic load (represented as honey bee lethal doses) of the agricultural insecticides applied in each US county from 1997 to 2012, and factors responsible for its change. Across the US, insect toxic load - calculated on the basis of oral toxicity - increased 9-fold. This increase was due to increases in the potency (toxicity/kg) of insecticides applied and in the area treated; the volume of insecticides applied declined. Toxic load increased most dramatically in regions where neonicotinoid seed treatments for field crops are commonly used.

ecology↗