Ranging pattern and population composition of Rhinopithecus bieti at Xiaochangdu, Tibet: Implications for conservation

Abstract

We studied the ranging pattern of the wild black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti) at Xiaochangdu, Tibet from June 2003 to March 2005. Using the map grid cell method, the group home range were 16.75 km 2 in summer, 10.50 km 2 in winter, and 21.25 km 2 total over two years. The daily travel length (DTL) averaged 765 m with a range of 350-3500 m. The results showed that DTL in winter was significantly shorter than those of in summer and spring. Temperature, rainfall, food availability, and human disturbance correlated positively with DTL. According to the maximum observed group size and estimated total home range, population density and biomass of R. bieti were 9.1 individuals/km 2 and 88.6 kg/km 2 , respectively. The temporal and spatial variations of food resources and patterns of human disturbance largely determine the ranging behavior of R. bieti at Xiaochangdu. Seasonal variations of food availability are known to influence non-human primates' ranging behavior as measured by daily travel length, seasonal home range size, and intensity of habitat use [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Such fluctuations can occur in both tropical and temperate forests, but seasonal food scarcity in temperate forests is more pronounced than that in tropical forests in terms of plant productivity and diversity [9,10]. As a result, primates inhabiting temperate environments must adjust their ranging pattern to deal with low temperature and food shortage in winter to a greater degree than their tropical counterparts. Temperate-living primates have been observed to adopt one of two strategies to balance their energetic costs and caloric expenditure during winter [11][12][13]. The "high-cost, high-returns" strategy involves greater investment in travel and foraging effort, expending more calories in order to improve access to high quality foods. This strategy is considered to be less common in primates [14][15][16]. The alternative, more widely employed "energy-saving" strategy is manifested in a broadening of the diet to include less preferred fallback foods while traveling less each day to conserve energy [17][18][19][20]. Between these two strategies, a diverse pattern of ranging behavior can be observed in temperate primates confronted with the stresses of food scarcity, nutritional deficits, and low ambient temperature during winter. Examining the ranging behavior of primates living in extreme habitats (e.g. at high altitude) can improve our understanding of ecological adaptations, which is relevant to developing conservation strategies for endangered primates living in temperate zones. Anthropogenic habitat disturbance such as selective logging often produces areas of resource scarcity [21] similar to that which may be experienced by primates during lean seasons. Specifically, daily travel distance (DTL) and home range have been proved to covary with habitat quality: spe-

Potential priority areas and protection network for Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus bieti) in Southwest China

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“…We used buffer analysis to obtain the spatial distribution of the effective range from human activities (settlement, farmland, and road) in the study area. According to the existing research, we selected 1 km, 3.5 km, and 5 km from human activities as buffer distances for all human activities (Xiang et al, 2013). The cell value of the resistance map ranged from 1 (minimum resistance value) to 101 (maximum resistance value).…”

Assessing the impact of road developments on connectivity across multiple scales: Application to Yunnan snub-nosed monkey conservation

“…14% of the study area. The groups' home range varies between 10 km 2 and 100 km 2 according to latitude and season (Long et al, 1995;Ren et al, 2009;Xiang et al, 2012). Although monkey groups prefer large habitat patches, they can also live in small ones if there is suboptimal habitat (mixed forest, evergreen broadleaf forest) nearby for food.…”

From Chinese Science Bulletin to Science Bulletin: celebrate the coming 50th birthday

“…In 2013, a special issue entitled ''Adaptive evolution and conservation ecology of wild animals'' was published. This special issue focuses on diverse hot topics in conservational biology including the influence of China's economic development on giant panda [72], factors that affect the natural regeneration of arrow bamboo in giant panda habitat [73], ranging pattern and population composition of Rhinopithecus bieti in Tibet [74], impacts of grassland fence on the behavior and habitat area of the Przewalski's gazelle [75]. Several questions in adaptive evolution were also addressed at molecular level, from the natural selection of leptin [76], variation and trans-species polymorphism MHC [77,78], to the molecular phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial gene fragments in Chinese viviparid genus Margarya [79].…”