Open AccessTerrestrial behavior and use of forest strata in a group of black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys Rhinopithecus bieti at Xiaochangdu, Tibet
Author(s) -
Zuofu Xiang,
Sheng Huang,
Wen Xiao,
RuiChang Quan,
Cyril C. Grueter
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
current zoology/environmental epigenetics/current zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.971
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 2058-5888
pISSN - 1674-5507
DOI - 10.1093/czoolo/55.3.180
Subject(s) - biology , predation , bark (sound) , white (mutation) , ecology , habitat , zoology , gene , biochemistry
Food distribution and predation pressure are considered to be the main ecological factors that influence the use of forest strata (basically arboreality vs. terrestriality) in non-human primates. Here, we investigate ground use of wild, unprovisioned black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys Rhinopithecus bieti by means of the scan sampling method. The results show that the monkeys spent 15.0% of the day time on the ground; 16.6%, 12.7%, and 15.6% for adult males, adult females and juveniles, respectively. Adult males and juveniles of both sexes showed significantly higher rates of terrestrial time than adult females. Females without clinging infants spent significantly more time on the ground than expected, while females with clinging infants spent significantly less time on the ground than expected. These results suggest that the higher degree of terrestrial behavior for males and juveniles may be due to their higher agility in comparison with females. Our study showed that the monkeys fed more on lichens relative to other food items when in the trees, but more on buds/leaves, flowers, fruits/nuts, resin/bark, and herbs when on the ground. According to our investigation, the ecological significance of the species’ terrestriality lies mainly in the utilization of terrestrial food resources.