Random walk analysis of ranging patterns of sympatric langurs in a complex resource landscape

The identification of random walk models to characterize the movement patterns of social groups of primates, and the behavioral processes that give rise to such movement patterns, remain open questions in movement ecology. Movement patterns characterized by a power-law tail with exponent between 1 and 3 (Lévy flight) occur when animals forage on scarce, randomly distributed resources. For primates and similar foragers with memory processes, movements resembling Lévy flights emerge when feeding trees (targets) are randomly distributed and the trunk size distribution of targets follows a power-law. We tested three competing random walk models to describe movement patterns of two langur species. We found a truncated power law to be the most suitable model. The power-law model was poorly supported by the data and hence we found no support for Lévy-flight-like behavior. Moreover, the spatial distribution of feeding trees and the probability distribution of feeding tree size differed from values suggested to result in Lévy-flight-like patterns. We identify intraspecific territoriality, foraging behavior, and the spatial and size distribution of food patches as plausible mechanisms that may have given rise to the observed movement patterns.