Anthropogenic influences on the time budgets of urban vervet monkeys

Continuing urban developments are ecologically changing many landscapes. A greater understanding of how wildlife adapt behaviorally to these changes is necessary to inform management decisions. Time is a valuable resource to wildlife and a reflection of ecological pressures on the behavioral repertoire of an animal. Data on urban vervet monkey, Chlorocebus pygerythrus, time budgets are generally limited and dated. We aimed to investigate the effect of anthropogenic influences, both human food consumption (positive) and human-monkey conflict (negative) on the time budgets of vervet monkeys in an urban landscape. We collected 20 min. focal animal observations and used generalized linear mixed models to assess the variation in time budget between five urban vervet monkey groups differing in anthropogenic contact over one year. We recorded anthropogenic interactions as positive and/or negative. Our results showed seasonal influences across all behaviors. Furthermore, anthropogenic disturbance influenced all aspects of time budget to some degree. We found a positive interaction effect between positive and negative human incidents on foraging, and a negative interaction effect on movement and social behavior. Overall, vervet monkeys exhibited behavioral flexibility in the urban landscape. We suggest a complex association of costs and benefits to urban living.