To enhance our understanding of dietary adaptations in macaques we studied the diet of the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis in limestone seasonal rain forests at Nonggang Nature Reserve, China from September 2005 to...To enhance our understanding of dietary adaptations in macaques we studied the diet of the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis in limestone seasonal rain forests at Nonggang Nature Reserve, China from September 2005 to August 2006. Our results show that although macaques fed on many plant species, 85.2% of the diet came from only 12 species, of which a bamboo species, Indocalamus calcicolus contributed to 62% of the diet. Young leaves were staple food items （74.1% of the diet） for Assamese macaques at Nonggang, and constituted the bulk of monthly diets almost year-round, ranging from 44.9% （July） to 92.9% （May）. Young parts of Indocalamus calcicolus unexpanded leaves contributed to a large proportion of the young leaf diet in most months. Fruit accounted for only 17.4% of the diet, with a peak of consumption in July. We suggest that this highly fo- livorous diet may be related to the long lean season of fruit availability in limestone habitats as well as the utilization of cliffs of low fruit availability展开更多
基金Acknowledgements This study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China （No 30860050）, Guangxi Science Foundation （0991095）, Monitoring and Conservation of Assamese macaques Project of National Forestry Administration of China, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Serious Specialization of Guangxi Natural Sciences Foundation （2010GXNSFE013004）, and Project of Creative Team from Colleges and Universities in Guangxi. We thank the Guangxi Forestry Bureau and Nonggang National Nature Reserve. We also acknowledge the critical comments of two anonymous reviewers.
文摘To enhance our understanding of dietary adaptations in macaques we studied the diet of the Assamese macaque Macaca assamensis in limestone seasonal rain forests at Nonggang Nature Reserve, China from September 2005 to August 2006. Our results show that although macaques fed on many plant species, 85.2% of the diet came from only 12 species, of which a bamboo species, Indocalamus calcicolus contributed to 62% of the diet. Young leaves were staple food items （74.1% of the diet） for Assamese macaques at Nonggang, and constituted the bulk of monthly diets almost year-round, ranging from 44.9% （July） to 92.9% （May）. Young parts of Indocalamus calcicolus unexpanded leaves contributed to a large proportion of the young leaf diet in most months. Fruit accounted for only 17.4% of the diet, with a peak of consumption in July. We suggest that this highly fo- livorous diet may be related to the long lean season of fruit availability in limestone habitats as well as the utilization of cliffs of low fruit availability
