Sickness behaviour associated with non-lethal infections in wild primates

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  • Ria R. Ghai
    Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
  • Vincent Fugère
    Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1
  • Colin A. Chapman
    Department of Anthropology and McGill School of Environment, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7
  • Tony L. Goldberg
    Department of Pathobiological Sciences and Global Health Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
  • T. Jonathan Davies
    Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1

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<jats:p> Non-lethal parasite infections are common in wildlife, but there is little information on their clinical consequences. Here, we pair infection data from a ubiquitous soil-transmitted helminth, the whipworm (genus <jats:italic>Trichuris</jats:italic> ), with activity data from a habituated group of wild red colobus monkeys ( <jats:italic>Procolobus rufomitratus tephrosceles</jats:italic> ) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We use mixed-effect models to examine the relationship between non-lethal parasitism and red colobus behaviour. Our results indicate that red colobus increased resting and decreased more energetically costly behaviours when shedding whipworm eggs in faeces. Temporal patterns of behaviour also changed, with individuals switching behaviour less frequently when whipworm-positive. Feeding frequency did not differ, but red colobus consumption of bark and two plant species from the genus <jats:italic>Albizia</jats:italic> , which are used locally in traditional medicines, significantly increased when animals were shedding whipworm eggs. These results suggest self-medicative plant use, although additional work is needed to verify this conclusion. Our results indicate sickness behaviours, which are considered an adaptive response by hosts during infection. Induction of sickness behaviour in turn suggests that these primates are clinically sensitive to non-lethal parasite infections. </jats:p>

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