In addition, water plays a vital role in thermoregulation ( National Research Council, 2003 Mitchell et al., 2009 Jéquier and Constant, 2010 Withers et al., 2016). Water has numerous essential roles for animals, such as being a medium for chemical reactions to occur, a transporter of metabolic and waste products, a lubricant and shock absorber ( Robbins, 1983 Jéquier and Constant, 2010). These results have important implications for conservation and behavior of mountain gorillas in the face of continued increases in temperature and frequency of extreme weather events associated with climate change. These findings highlight that even in rainforest mammals that gain most of their water requirements from food, access to free-standing water may be important because it likely facilitates evaporative cooling in response to thermoregulatory stress. We also found that Virunga gorillas relied more on foods with higher water content than Bwindi gorillas, which in part likely explains why they drink water much less frequently. In both populations, we found that the frequency of water drinking significantly increased at higher maximum temperatures than cooler ones, but we found no consistent relationship between water drinking and rainfall. We examined the relationship between the frequency of water drinking and maximum temperature and rainfall in 21 groups of wild gorillas from the two mountain gorilla populations (Bwindi and Virunga), between 20. This is especially true for endangered species in small isolated populations which are vulnerable to drought and the risk of extinction. Given that increasing temperatures and more extreme weather events due to climate change are predicted to influence water availability, understanding how species obtain and use water is critical. Water plays a vital role in many aspects of sustaining life, including thermoregulation. 7Iluka Resources, Stony Creek, VA, United States.6School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.5Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Kabale, Uganda.
4Great Apes Survival Partnership, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.3Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Atlanta, GA, United States.2Institute of Conservation Science and Learning, Bristol Zoological Society, Bristol, United Kingdom.1Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.Edward Wright 1,2 * Winnie Eckardt 3 Johannes Refisch 4 Robert Bitariho 5 Cyril C.
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