Anthropology Commons^™

Using The Stable Carbon And Nitrogen Isotope Compositions Of Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus Pygerythrus) To Examine Questions In Ethnoprimatology, James E. Loudon, J. Paul Grobler, Matt Sponheimer, Kimberly Moyer, Joseph G. Lorenz, Trudy R. Turner

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

This study seeks to understand how humans impact the dietary patterns of eight free-ranging vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) groups in South Africa using stable isotope analysis. Vervets are omnivores that exploit a wide range of habitats including those that have been anthropogenically-disturbed. As humans encroach upon nonhuman primate landscapes, human-nonhuman primate interconnections become increasingly common, which has led to the rise of the field of ethnoprimatology. To date, many ethnoprimatological studies have examined human-nonhuman primate associations largely in qualitative terms. By using stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope analysis, we use quantitative data …