Welcome to Chinese Journal of Ecology! Today is Share:

cje

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of food availability on seasonal diet composition of whiteheaded langur.

LU Shi-yi1, LU Chang-hu1*, LI You-bang2   

  1. (1College of Biology and the Environment, CoInnovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China; 2College of Life Science, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, Guangxi, China)
  • Online:2016-03-10 Published:2016-03-10

Abstract: Study on the impact of food availability in limestone habitat on dietary diversity and monthly similarity is crucial to understand animal’s adaptation to specific habitat. We collected data on food species, items and feeding time of whiteheaded langur (Trachypithecus leucocephalus) via instantaneous scanning sampling method, and monitored food availability by fixed transect in their home range each month. The results showed that annual dietary diversity index was 4.02. There was no significant monthly variation in dietary diversity (P=0.89), and there was a significant negative correlation between dietary diversity and availability of young leaves of staple food (P<0.05). Eight species were used by the langurs in all months, whereas others were consumed seasonally, despite of their higher availability. Food species overlap between months ranged from 0.36 (March and April) to 0.75 (September and October). Moreover, we found a significant positive correlation between food availability similarity and dietary species similarity among months (P<0.05). This study suggested that langurs inhabiting limestone hills diversified food species to meet nutrient demand by being selective in food species available in all months and consuming some seasonally available food species.

Key words: nitrogen sources, nitrogen utilization, high fertility, genotype, peanut