Unexpected locomotor behaviour: brachiation by an Old World monkey (Pygathrix nemaeus) from Vietnam

Abstract

More than 70 h of positional behaviour data were collected on the red-shanked douc langur Pygathrix nemaeus, Delacour's langur Trachypithecus delacouri, Hatinh langur Trachypithecus laotum, and the white-cheeked crested gibbon Hylobates leucogenys in January and February of 2001 at the Endangered Primate Rescue Center of Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam. Equal amounts of instantaneous and continuous bout data were collected for each of the four species. All animals were housed in enclosures of 10 × 5 × 3.5 m with similar substrates, and lived in small, species-appropriate social groups. The positional behaviour of white-cheeked crested gibbons was as expected with > 80% of locomotor bouts and 60% of postures being suspensory in nature. The positional behaviour of the Delacour's and Hatinh langurs was similar to that reported in the literature for other Asian colobines with > 90% of the locomotor bouts being quadrupedal walking, running, and bounding on tops of arboreal supports. Postures were dominated by sitting in and sitting out with forelimb suspension associated with < 10% of these behaviours. The positional behaviour of the red-shanked douc langur is intermediate in nature between the Delacour's and Hatinh langur and the white-cheeked crested gibbon. Locomotion is nearly evenly divided between arm-swinging (46%) and quadrupedal walking and running bouts (54%). Forelimb suspensory postures were three times more frequent for the red-shanked douc langur than they were for the Delacour's langur.

Locomotor versatility in the white-handed gibbon (Hylobates lar): A spatiotemporal analysis of the bipedal, tripedal, and quadrupedal gaits

“…The quadrupedal gait of gibbons is also remarkable because the footfall patterns are more comparable to the bounding of some old world monkeys (e.g., colobines and langurs; McGraw, 1996;Byron and Covert, 2004;Workman and Covert, 2005) and the half-bounding of medium-sized mammals (e.g., rabbits, chinchillas, and bandicoots; Fischer et al, 2002;Lammers and German, 2002;Bennett and Garden, 2004) than to the typical diagonal sequence gait of most primates (Hildebrand, 1967;Vilensky, 1989;Larson, 1998;Lemelin et al, 2003).…”

“…In the bounding gait of several Old World monkeys, which is commonly used during locomotion on arboreal substrates (McGraw, 1996;Byron and Covert, 2004), both forelimbs touch down simultaneously, followed by simultaneous touchdown of both hind limbs.…”

An evolutionary hypothesis to explain the role of deconditioning in low back pain prevalence in humans

“…World Monkeys (OWMs), generally considered anatomically similar to early Miocene forms, exhibit these behaviours [137][138][139]. Indeed the anatomy of early Miocene forms such as Proconsul and Morotopithecus 1 suggest that their locomotor patterns involved similar arboreal quadruped positional behaviours [140][141][142][143][144].…”

Locomotor Behavior and Skeletal Morphology of the Odd-Nosed Monkeys

“…Copyright © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel Rhinopithecus , Pygathrix , Nasalis and Simias are commonly referred to as the odd-nosed monkeys due to their unique external nasal morphology, which unites them in a clade distinct from other colobines [Jablonski and Peng, 1993;Jablonski, 1998b;Sterner et al, 2006]. They are poorly known, with studies of ecology, behavior, morphology and phylogenetic relationships of these monkeys having been inaugurated only in the last 20 years [for example see Jablonski, 1998a, chapters and references therein; Pan and Oxnard, 2001;Yang, 2003;Li et al, 2004;Byron and Covert, 2004;Workman and Covert, 2005;Isler and Grüter, 2006;Sterner et al, 2006;Whittaker et al, 2006;Li, 2007]. Species of the odd-nosed group differ from other Old World monkeys in their use of arm-swinging and brachiating locomotion and climbing behavior similar to those used by hominoids and atelines [Workman and Covert, 2005;Isler and Grüter, 2006].…”

“…They are entirely arboreal and have never been seen on the ground [Lippold, 1998]. They frequently use suspensory locomotion and postures, including brachiation [Byron and Covert, 2004]. The pig-tailed snub-nosed langur (Simias concolor) is found only in the rain forests of the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra [Tilson, 1977].…”