Winter foraging ecology of stump-tailed macaques Macaca arctoides in the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam, India

Stotrabhashyam, Swetha and Sharma, Narayan and Kumar, Ajith and Sinha, Anindya (2023) Winter foraging ecology of stump-tailed macaques Macaca arctoides in the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam, India. Journal of Biosciences, 48.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract:	Frugivorous primates in temperate and subtropical regions often experience a shortage or complete absence of fruits for several months of the year. We studied the foraging ecology of a group of stump-tailed macaques Macaca arctoides in a subtropical forest during winter, when fruit abundance was low. We conducted this study in the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, Assam, India, from December 2015 to April 2016. We estimated the time–activity budgets, diet, and habitat use of the study troop and also conducted vegetation sampling and phenological monitoring of the study area. The stump-tailed macaque troop spent about 73.2% of its time foraging and feeding, with seasonal differences in food species intake and in habitat use. Open degraded forests were primarily used in December, January, and February, when the macaques largely fed on shoots of the bamboo Schizostachyum polymorphum and roots of the herb Forrestia (= Amischotolype) mollissima, while they mostly utilised F. mollissima in canopy-covered, degraded forests in March and April. There was a major shift from a primary diet of fruits in the wet season, reported from earlier studies, to possibly relatively poor-quality, but abundant, shoots and roots in winter. This suggests that the consumption of these poor-quality fallback food species is a key dietary adaptation of the macaques to periods of fruit scarcity. Although our preliminary study suggests that the feeding behaviour of the stump-tailed macaque in its subtropical semi-evergreen forest habitat appears to be similar to that of its congeneric species in temperate forests, further investigations are needed to firmly establish the observed foraging patterns of this vulnerable cercopithecine species in its last lowland rainforest refuge in northeastern India.
Item Type:	Journal Paper
Subjects:	School of Natural and Engineering Sciences > Animal Behaviour School of Natural and Engineering Sciences > Animal Studies
Divisions:	Schools > Natural Sciences and Engineering
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2023 07:00
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2023 07:00
Official URL:	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12038-0...
Related URLs:
Funders:	*
Projects:	*
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-023-00356-0
URI:	http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/2543

Actions (login required)

View Item