Variation in diet and ranging of black and white colobus monkeys in Kibale National Park, Uganda

Abstract

Recently, considerable intraspecific variation in the diets and ranging behavior of colobine monkeys has been described, although in most cases this has involved documenting variation between, not within, sites. Some African colobines, such as guerezas (Colobus guereza), are relatively abundant in disturbed habitats that are very heterogeneous, raising the intriguing possibility that even groups with overlapping home ranges may exhibit large behavioral differences. If such differences occur, it will be important to understand what temporal and spatial scales adequately portray a species' or population's diet and ranging behavior. This study documents within-site variation in the diet and ranging behavior of guerezas in the habitat types in which they are described to be most successful•forest edge and regenerating forest. We collected data on eight groups of guerezas with overlapping home ranges for 3-5 months each in Kibale National Park, Uganda. The guerezas were highly folivorous, with leaves constituting 78.5-94.0% of the groups' diets. The percentage of mature leaves and fruit in the diet varied widely among and within groups. We show that differences among groups in the intensity with which they fed on specific tree species were not just related to phenology, but also to differences in the forest compositions of groups' core areas. Range size estimates varied more than fivefold among groups and the minimum distance from groups' core areas to eucalyptus forest (which all groups regularly fed in) was a better predictor of range size than was group size. These results reveal considerable variation in the diet and ranging behavior among groups with overlapping ranges and have implications for comparative studies, investigations of within-and between-group feeding competition, and the potential for populations to adapt to anthropogenic or natural environmental change.

Understanding long‐term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change

“…We used these data to determine what should be considered to be food for each primate species. We included foods (i.e., a specific part from a particular species) that constituted !4% of the time spent feeding reported by Rudran (1978) and Butynski (1990) for blue monkeys, by Waser (1975) and Olupot (1994) for mangabeys, by Harris and Chapman (2007) and Oates (1977) for black-and-white colobus, by K. D. Rode et al (2006, unpublished data) and C. M. Stickler (2004, unpublished data) for redtails, and by C. A. Chapman and L. J. Chapman (2002, unpublished data) and by Struhsaker (1975) for red colobus.…”

“…} For Colobus guereza we present the mean of six groups from Harris and Chapman (2007). # For P. rufomitratus the data are from ; the first line is for a large group, and the second line is for a small group.…”

Linking feeding ecology and population abundance: a review of food resource limitation on primates

“…Second, some primates select food with high mineral content (Magliocca and Gautier-Hion 2002;Rode et al 2003). Third, some primates obtain sodium from unusual feeding locations, such as swamp plants, salt licks, or eucalyptus plantations, and the availability of these locations is often limited (Oates 1978;Harris and Chapman 2007;Matsubayashi et al 2011). Fourth, mineral availability is known to affect spatial distribution of herbivorous African ungulates (McNaughton 1988) and a colobine monkey (Colobus guereza) (Harris and Chapman 2007).…”

“…Third, some primates obtain sodium from unusual feeding locations, such as swamp plants, salt licks, or eucalyptus plantations, and the availability of these locations is often limited (Oates 1978;Harris and Chapman 2007;Matsubayashi et al 2011). Fourth, mineral availability is known to affect spatial distribution of herbivorous African ungulates (McNaughton 1988) and a colobine monkey (Colobus guereza) (Harris and Chapman 2007). To our knowledge, there is only one study that examines the effect of minerals on primate abundance (Rode et al 2006).…”

Responses to leopards are independent of experience in Guereza colobus monkeys

“…The monkeys' highly inactive life-style is likely to be related to the need to cope with these dietary constraints: Guerezas display energy-conserving behaviour, with 57% or more of their time spent resting, around 20% feeding and only 5% moving (cf., Dasilva, 1992;Oates et al, 1994;Fashing, 2001a). In addition, Guerezas' day journey lengths only average about 550 m per day (Oates, 1977;Oates et al, 1994;Fashing, 2001a), and home range sizes are rather small, ranging from 10 to 35 ha, with actively defended core territories of around 1-2 ha in some study populations (Marler, 1969;Oates et al, 1994; but see Harris, 2006;Harris & Chapman, 2007).…”