Ecological Flexibility in Boutourlini’s Blue Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii) in Jibat Forest, Ethiopia: A Comparison of Habitat Use, Ranging Behavior, and Diet in Intact and Fragmented Forest

Abstract

Comparisons of the behavior and ecology of primates living in intact and fragmented forest are critical to the development of conservation strategies for the many primate taxa threatened by habitat loss. From July 2009 to April 2010, we investigated the habitat use, ranging behavior, and diet of two groups of Boutourlini's blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii), a subspecies endemic to western Ethiopia, whose habitats had experienced different levels of disturbance at Jibat Forest. Forest Group occupied primarily continuous tree-dominated forest with little human disturbance whereas Fragment Group inhabited a heavily degraded 2-to 3-km 2 forest fragment nearly surrounded by farmland and connected tenuously to the continuous forest by a narrow corridor of riverine forest. Mean daily path lengths for both groups were nearly identical (Forest Group: 799 m; Fragment Group: 783 m) and exhibited little seasonal variability. The mean home range areas of Forest Group and Fragment Group were 72.0 and 61.2 ha, respectively. Forest Group (N=2232 feeding records) fed mostly on fruits (52.5 %), though they also ate animal prey (14.7 %), young leaves (11.1 %), shoots (8.7 %), and flowers (7.3 %). In contrast, fruits accounted for only 17.0 % of Fragment

Population size, habitat association and dietary composition of Boutourlinis blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii) in Komto Protected Forest, Western Ethiopia

“…This increment was attributed to birth during the wet season. Similar finding was reported from Jibat Forest, Ethiopia by Tesfaye et al (2013). The population size of Boutourlini's blue monkey recorded during the present study was very low which might be attributed to anthropogenic activities that resulted in reduction of food sources in the area.…”

“…Boutourlini's blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii), is a forgotten subspecies endemic to the Southwestern Ethiopian Rift Valley between Lake Tana and Lake Turkana (Yalden et al, 1977;Butynski and Gippoliti, 2008). They had never been the subject of study, and thus their biology, ecology and social behaviour is unknown (Tesfaye et al, 2013). They are listed as Vulnerable by IUCN because of the severe destruction and fragmentation of forests .…”

Gelada feeding ecology in an intact ecosystem at Guassa, Ethiopia: Variability over time and implications for theropith and hominin dietary evolution

“…In disturbed forests, primate diets are often less diverse or of lower quality than in intact habitats (Riley, 2007;Tesfaye et al, 2013). The impact of disturbance on the diets of primates inhabiting grassland ecosystems remains largely unstudied, however, including for geladas which are unique among primates in that they permanently inhabit the Afroalpine grassland habitats of the Ethiopian Highlands.…”

Biogeographic Variation in the Diet and Behaviour of Cercopithecus mitis

“…mitis (referred to as samango monkeys, blue monkeys or Sykes' monkeys in different parts of their range) is a medium-sized (adult females ∼ 4.4 kg, adult males ∼ 7.6 kg [Harvey et al, 1987]), arboreal, diurnal guenon, which forms single-male multi-female groups with group sizes ranging from 4 to 65 [Butynski, 1990;Beeson et al, 1996;Smith et al, 2008;Houle et al, 2010;Lawes et al, 2013]. Home ranges have been reported as large as 253 ha [Butynski, 1990], but most groups tend to have ranges of less than 80 ha [Cords, 1986;Butynski, 1990;Lawes, 1991;Beeson et al, 1996;Kaplin et al, 1998;Fairgrieve and Muhumuza, 2003;Coleman, 2013;Tesfaye et al, 2013]. The distribution of C. mitis extends from central Ethiopia in the north to the Eastern Cape, South Africa, in the south (a distance of approx.…”

“…For Budongo Forest, Uganda [Fairgrieve and Muhumuza, 2003], only unlogged forest data were used as these were more comparable to data from other study sites. Similarly for the population in Jibat Forest, Ethiopia [Tesfaye et al, 2013], only undisturbed forest data were used.…”