INFLUENCE OF FOOD DISTRIBUTION ON BEHAVIOR IN CAPTIVE BONGOS, TAUROTRAGUS-EURYCEROS - AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

A feeding experiment was conducted to test if Bongo antelopes, being s elective feeders searching for clumped quality food, show similar beha vior changes as primates under similar conditions, One group of 3 fema les and 3 calves at Dvur Kralove Zoo was either fed clumped (all food, i.e., leaves and branches of 4 species of tree plus rye grass in one heap), or the same amount distributed over as many heaps as animals pr esent. No increase in agonistic interactions under clumped conditions was found, but non-agonistic and sociopositive patterns increased sign ificantly. Intake of low quality food increased under clumped conditio ns. Social distances and enclosure use were not significantly differen t. These findings are in accordance with predictions from models devel oped for primate feeding strategies, and suggest that selectively feed ing antelopes possess behavioral mechanisms for tension-reduction simi lar to ''contest-type'' primates. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.