Diet of a Japanese Macaque Troop in the Coniferous Forest of Yakushima

Macaques at the margins: the biogeography and extinction of Macaca sylvanus in Europe

“…Modern M. sylvanus inhabits deciduous (cedar-oak, oak) and coniferous (fir) forests in North Africa (Menard, 2002), and M. fuscata also uses both types of forest (Hanya, 2004).…”

“…Therefore, the activity hours included in our simple model may thus be an over-estimate of those that are needed for survival. This notwithstanding, the convergence in number of December hours spent travelling, foraging, feeding and socialising in the Yakushima M. fuscata group and the Djurdjura and Akfadou M. sylvanus groups, below the total number of daylight hours available (Menard and Vallet, 1997;Hanya, 2004), indicates that the figures provide a reasonable winter baseline for essential activity. In regions like Britain with shorter winter days, resting time might be further reduced to allow for essential feeding and socialising.…”

“…However, given thermoregulatory constraints exacerbated by low food availability on temperate macaques in winter, the costs of foraging and travelling might outweigh feeding returns (Hanya 2004). In M. sylvanus, bad winter weather appears to enforce resting (Menard and Vallet, 1997;Majolo et al, 2013).…”

“…In M. sylvanus, bad winter weather appears to enforce resting (Menard and Vallet, 1997;Majolo et al, 2013). Resting time is therefore vital for conserving energy (Hanya 2004) or even ensuring survival in harsh conditions, and it is unlikely that it could be dispensed with totally. Socialising is less vital than feeding, even in primates, and might be another area of saving.…”

Preface to the special contribution “Out of the tropics: ecology of temperate primates”

“…Therefore, it is expected that these species exhibit a variety of adaptations that help them to cope with the ecological demands associated with living in marginal temperate habitats. Temperate-living primates are not necessarily less studied than tropical-living ones; for example, Japanese macaques have been studied at many study sites in the Japanese Archipelago for more than 60 years (Nakagawa et al 2010), and their unique adaptations to coldness and strong seasonality, which are key characteristics of temperate habitats, have been well documented (Hori et al 1977;Hanya 2004;Hanya et al 2007). However, there have been few attempts to relate these findings to studies in tropical areas and to generalize the characteristics of temperate forests and the ecological strategies of primates that live there.…”