Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
mostly frugivorous, with fruit making up from 40 percent to over 80 percent of
its diet, except in highly provisioned populations or highly disturbed environ-
ments (
Table 8.6
). Like the Mauritian macaques, other populations are eclectic
feeders that exploit a variety of different food items. In addition, they show a
high level of short-term selectivity, eating from a large number of species but
concentrating on a few at any one time.
A twelve-month study of the diet of
M. fascicularis
in a Borneo swamp for-
est by Yeager (
1996
) offers an excellent comparison to our study of Mauritian
macaques. The Borneo macaques had an average dietary diversity of 1.91 and
showed a preference for thirteen of nineteen species for which she could cal-
culate selection ratios. The monkeys ate from more than thirty-three plant spe-
cies but relied on five species (
Ganua motleyan, Diospyros ainguyi, Licania
splenens, Eugenia sp
. and
Garcinina sp
.), accounting for more than 60 per-
cent of their diet. Although the plant species eaten by the Borneo population
were completely different from those exploited by the Mauritian macaques, the
types of items eaten, the degree of dietary diversity, and the degree of select-
ivity are very similar. We believe that these features of
M. fascicularis
feeding
ecology represent a species-specific dietary pattern (Sussman,
1987
) and can
be related to its wide biogeographical dispersion.
Home and day-ranging behavior
The average day range for the study groups in Mauritius was 3428 meters
(1132-7696 m) and the average home range was 0.76 km
2
The straight-line
distance groups spent from their sleeping site averaged 374 m (0-1044 m),
with a maximum average distance of 656 m. The amount of time per day spent
away from the sleeping site averaged 11.7 hours (8.8-14.0 hours) (Jamieson,
1998
). As stated above, the groups returned to the same sleeping sites every
day throughout the eighteen-month study period.
Movement of the groups to sites away from the sleeping sites appeared to be
related to a number of factors. Fruit availability correlated with site choice only
during periods when fruit was least abundant. Other factors, such as human
activity, ripeness of sugarcane, amount of shade, proximity to water, resting
or sleeping locations, or to other groups, influenced choice of sites visited
throughout the day. Seasonal changes in subgroups, interactions and disper-
sion, male migration and group fission were related more to changes in social
behavior associated with the macaque reproductive cycle than to environmen-
tal factors
per se
(Jamieson,
1998
).
One of the most interesting things about long-tailed macaque behavior is
their propensity for returning to the same sleeping site each evening. This gives
