%0 Journal Article
%A Wessling, Erin G.
%A Samuni, Liran
%A Mundry, Roger
%A Pascual, Miguel Adan
%A Lucchesi, Stefano
%A Kambale, Bienfait
%A Surbeck, Martin
%+ Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
Bonobos, Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Evaluating the efficacy of a consumer‐centric method for ecological sampling: Using bonobo (Pan paniscus) feeding patterns as an instrument for tropical forest characterization : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000C-47B3-A
%R 10.1002/ece3.9606
%7 2022-12-29
%D 2022
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Characteristics of food availability and distribution are key components of a species'<br>ecology. Objective ecological surveying used in animal behavior research does not<br>consider aspects of selection by the consumer and therefore may produce imprecise<br>measures of availability. We propose a method to integrate ecological sampling of an<br>animal's environment into existing behavioral data collection systems by using the<br>consumer as the surveyor. Here, we evaluate the consumer-centric method (CCM)<br>of assessing resource availability for its ability to measure food resource abundance,<br>distribution, and dispersion. This method catalogs feeding locations observed during<br>behavioral observation and uses aggregated data to characterize these ecological<br>metrics. We evaluated the CCM relative to traditional vegetation plot surveying<br>using accumulated feeding locations across 3 years visited by a tropical frugivore, the<br>bonobo (Pan paniscus), and compared it with data derived from over 200 vegetation<br>plots across their 50 km2+ home ranges. We demonstrate that food species abundance<br>estimates derived from the CCM are comparable to those derived from traditional<br>vegetation plot sampling in less than 2 years of data collection, and agreement improved<br>when accounting for aspects of consumer selectivity in objective vegetation plot<br>sampling (e.g., tree size minima). Density correlated between CCM and plot-derived<br>estimates and was relatively insensitive to home range inclusion and other species<br>characteristics, however, it was sensitive to sampling frequency. Agreement between<br>the methods in relative distribution of resources performed better across species than<br>expected by chance, although measures of dispersion correlated poorly. Once tested<br>in other systems, the CCM may provide a robust measure of food availability for use<br>in relative food availability indices and can be incorporated into existing observational<br>data collection. The CCM has an advantage over traditional sampling methods as it<br>incorporates sampling biases relevant to the consumer, thereby serving as a promising<br>method for animal behavioral research
%K dispersion, distribution, food availability, resource selection, species abundance, vegetation plot
%J Ecology and Evolution
%V 12
%] e9606
%@ 2045-77582045-7758