Roy Kuladeep, Singh Mewa, Singh Mridula
Department of Psychology, University of Mysore, Mysore, India.
Folia Primatol (Basel). 2011;82(6):283-98. doi: 10.1159/000336964. Epub 2012 Mar 30.
We studied the feeding ecology of 3 sympatric primate species, the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata) and Hanuman langur (Semnopithecus entellus), in a tropical rain forest of the Central Western Ghats, India. Since the availability of leaves is much higher than that of fruits, we expected that the primarily folivorous langurs would use a larger number of resources than the primarily frugivorous macaques. Since fruits are a relatively total resource, unlike leaves, of which only selected parts are consumed, we expected that the primarily frugivorous macaques would use resources more proportionately than the folivorous langurs, resulting in a wider food niche breadth in macaques. We collected data on these primate species over a period of 2 years using scan sampling in a contiguous rain forest. We calculated Levin's standardised food niche breadth for each species. Langurs used a larger number of tree species than macaques, but their niche breadth was narrower than that of macaques. The majority of their diet (over 50%) came from only a few trees in the case of all three primate species. Long-term data are provided herein for the first time on the feeding ecology of bonnet macaques and Hanuman langurs in a tropical rain forest.
我们在印度西高止山脉中部的热带雨林中，研究了三种同域分布的灵长类动物的觅食生态，即狮尾猕猴（Macaca silenus）、帽猴（Macaca radiata）和哈努曼叶猴（Semnopithecus entellus）。由于树叶的可获取量远高于果实，我们预计以树叶为主食的叶猴会比以果实为主食的猕猴利用更多的资源。由于果实是一种相对完整的资源，与树叶不同，树叶只有部分被食用，我们预计以果实为主食的猕猴会比以树叶为主食的叶猴更均衡地利用资源，从而使猕猴的食物生态位宽度更广。我们在一片相邻的热带雨林中，通过扫描取样，在两年时间里收集了这些灵长类动物的数据。我们计算了每个物种的莱文标准化食物生态位宽度。叶猴利用的树种比猕猴多，但其生态位宽度比猕猴窄。在这三种灵长类动物中，它们的大部分食物（超过50%）都仅来自少数几种树木。本文首次提供了帽猴和哈努曼叶猴在热带雨林中的觅食生态的长期数据。
