Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY
Volume 34, Issue 3, Pages 615-640Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10764-013-9684-x
Keywords
Bamboo; Conservation; Crop raiding; Feeding ecology; Forest fragment; Guenon; Home range
Categories
Funding
- Primate Conservation, Inc. (PCI)
- Department of Zoological Sciences at Addis Ababa University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Comparisons of the behavior and ecology of primates living in intact and fragmented forest are critical to the development of conservation strategies for the many primate taxa threatened by habitat loss. From July 2009 to April 2010, we investigated the habitat use, ranging behavior, and diet of two groups of Boutourlini's blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii), a subspecies endemic to western Ethiopia, whose habitats had experienced different levels of disturbance at Jibat Forest. Forest Group occupied primarily continuous tree-dominated forest with little human disturbance whereas Fragment Group inhabited a heavily degraded 2- to 3-km(2) forest fragment nearly surrounded by farmland and connected tenuously to the continuous forest by a narrow corridor of riverine forest. Mean daily path lengths for both groups were nearly identical (Forest Group: 799 m; Fragment Group: 783 m) and exhibited little seasonal variability. The mean home range areas of Forest Group and Fragment Group were 72.0 and 61.2 ha, respectively. Forest Group (N = 2232 feeding records) fed mostly on fruits (52.5 %), though they also ate animal prey (14.7 %), young leaves (11.1 %), shoots (8.7 %), and flowers (7.3 %). In contrast, fruits accounted for only 17.0 % of Fragment Group's diet (N = 2903 feeding records), with shoots (29.8 %), young leaves (17.1 %), animal prey (13.1 %), seeds (9.6 %), and flowers (6.8 %) also making substantial contributions to their diet. Only Fragment Group engaged in crop raiding, consuming seeds from barley and wheat extensively (33-41 % of diet) during 2 mo. Fragment Group (N = 33) ate more plant species than Forest Group (N = 24), though both groups exploited a small number of plant species relative to other subspecies of blue monkeys. Our study revealed that, like most other blue monkey subspecies, Boutourlini's blue monkeys are quite flexible in the habitats they occupy as well as in their foraging habits. Despite this ecological flexibility, the long-term conservation of Boutourlini's blue monkey is far from assured given its limited distribution, the rapidly growing human population, and the high rates of forest clearance in western Ethiopia.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available