Measuring Daily Ranging Distances of Rhinopithecus bieti via a Global Positioning System Collar at Jinsichang, China: A Methodological Consideration

Abstract

There are few data on the daily ranging distances of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti). We fitted 1 adult male from a natural group at Jinsichang in China's Yunnan Province with a global positioning system (GPS) collar and tracked him from December 2003 to October 2004 to estimate the daily ranging distances of the group. The total acquisition rate of the GPS collar was 82.2%, which indicates that one can use GPS collars to track the species efficiently in high-altitude, temperate, coniferous forest. We obtained group locations or fixes at 5 predetermined times during the day. The sleeping sites of the subjects are the key points to estimate the day range. We compared 2 measures of day range: the 2-point straight-line displacement and the multipoint cumulative daily ranging distance. Straight-line displacement between 2 consecutive mornings or 2 consecutive evenings can substitute for that between the morning sleeping site and the evening sleeping site. In general, the group does not move at night. The 2 measures of day range yielded different results. The multipoint cumulative daily ranging distance was the method of choice to measure their daily travel costs. The minimum required Int J Primatol (number of fixes per day was 3. Per statistical evidence, the number of full-day group follows per month influences the estimate of day range of the group and ≥10 d is required to obtain a reliable estimate; 5 d per month might not be enough. We dealt mainly with the methodologic aspects of day range calculations. We did not address functional aspects on the estimate of day range, viz. the influence of vegetation, food distribution patterns, climate change, seasonality, and the monkey group itself.

Improving landscape connectivity for the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey through cropland reforestation using graph theory

“…According to several surveys (Kirkpatrick et al, 1998;Ren et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2009), the daily travel distance varies between 350 m and 3000 m with an average of approximately 1500 m, but dispersal events are not well known, especially in terms of the coverage of extreme distances (Grueter, 2003).…”

Factors Influencing the Ranging Behavior of Chacma Baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) Living in a Human-Modified Habitat

“…Our collar captured at least three data points every day of the study: at least one at the sleeping site and at least two away from the sleeping site. Three data points per day can construct a DPL (Ren et al 2008), so we did not exclude any days. We included data sets for January 2010 and January 2011 in daily ranging analyses but excluded them from monthly ranging analyses because we did not have data for every day of these months.…”

Home range and seasonality of Yunnan snub‐nosed monkeys

“…The released collar was retrieved on 24 October 2004. The animal-collar process is outlined by Ren et al (2008). The ST-20 collar functioned every two days, and provided the location of the monkey group from 13.00 to 17.00 hours.…”