Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
primarily arboreal but readily are able to exploit terrestrial habitats. In Malaysia
and Indonesia, for example,
M. fascicularis
characteristically travels and flees
in the trees (Furuya,
1965
; Kurland,
1973
; Rodman,
1978a
, 1978b,
1991
;
Aldrich-Blake,
1980
; Wheatley,
1980
,
1982
; Crockett and Wilson,
1980
).
Wheatley (
1980
) observed long-tailed macaques to spend 97 percent of the
time in the trees while foraging, and Crockett and Wilson (
1980
) found these
macaques in the trees in 71 percent of encounters with them. Even in these
sites, however, long-tailed macaques forage on the ground along rivers and on
the mudflats of swamps and the sea (Crockett and Wilson,
1980
; Wheatley,
1982
; Khan and Wahab,
1983
; van Schaik
et al
.,
1996
). At other sites, as
in our Mauritian site, where continuous canopy is not available, long-tailed
macaques spend a great deal of time on the ground (e.g., Poirier and Smith,
1974
; Spencer,
1975
). Also, as in our site,
M. fascicularis
is often found living
in close proximity to water and is an accomplished swimmer (Spencer,
1975
;
Poirier and Smith,
1974
; Fittinghoff and Lindburgh,
1980
; Son
2003
). Long-
tailed macaques have even been observed catching and eating fish (Stewart
et al
.,
2008
).
Diet and feeding behavior
The Mauritian macaques exploited more than 55 plant species during the study
and ate a variety of different food items. They were predominantly frugivor-
ous, with fruit (17 percent), pods (10 percent), and seeds (11 percent) account-
ing for 38 percent of feeding time. Other important food sources were leaves
(including petioles and buds) (22 percent), flowers (9 percent), sugarcane (6
percent), and grass (5 percent). The macaques also ate insects, bark, snails,
mushrooms, exudates, grass, water plants and molasses. Six species (
Leucaena
leucocephala
[14 percent],
Acacia concinna
[13 percent],
Tamarindus indica
[7 percent], sugarcane [7 percent],
Mangifera indica
[6 percent], and
Psidium
sp
[5 percent]) made up 50 percent of the diet (
Figure 8.4
).
The monkeys were also highly selective in their choice of food items. Of
the 27 species for which selection ratios could be calculated, the macaques
selected fourteen more often than would be expected based on their relative
density. The macaques exploited a few species intensively throughout the
study (e.g.,
Acacia concinna
and
Leucaena leucocephala
) but most species
only made up a high portion of the diet during one or two months. The average
number of species consumed each month was 22 and the maximum was 31.
An average of 4.23 species made up over 60 percent of the diet each month.
Dietary diversity (Sussman, 1987) ranged from 1.9-2.8 with an average of 2.4.
The macaques increased dietary breadth during the dry season with the number
