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Effects of water level on sleeping-site selection and inter-group association in proboscis monkeys: why do they sleep alone inland on flooded days?

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Ecological Research

Abstract

A one-male group (BE-Group) of proboscis monkeys was studied along the Menanggul River, a tributary of the Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Malaysia, from May 2005 to 2006. It has generally been assumed that proboscis monkeys only set up their sleeping sites along the riverbank; however, when more than 1 m of water covered the forest floor for more than 700 m inland from the riverbank during the seasonal flood, the BE-Group slept inside the forest. It seems that the sleeping-site selection of the BE-Group was not influenced by food availability during the flooded months because the food availability by the vegetational survey did not vary much between flooded and non-flooded months. In addition, feeding behaviors of the focal monkey in the BE-Group also did not vary much between flooded and non-flooded days. On the other hand, the water level statistically influenced the sleeping-site selection. The proboscis monkeys remained in inland forest during the flooded days because of the reduced predation threat, as terrestrial predators such as clouded leopards are prevented from foraging by deep water covering the forest floor. On non-flooded days when the BE-Group slept at the riverbank, they frequently slept close to other one-male groups on the riverside trees. Contrastingly, when the group slept inside the forest on flooded days when the water level was high, they slept away from other groups. This difference in the need for one-male groups to sleep close to each other might be attributed to the decreased predation threat during high water level in the flooded days.

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Acknowledgments

We express our sincere thanks to the Economic Planning Unit of the Malaysian Government, especially M. Bt. A. Manan and G. Vu, for permission to conduct our research in Malaysia. We particularly thank the staff of the Sabah Wildlife Department for their permission to conduct our research in Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. We also thank the staff of Forestry Department, Sabah, especially Haji H. Tukiman, L. Ruki, J. Sugau, J. T. Pereira, and P. Miun for arranging our base camp and supporting the identification of all plants species. We are grateful to I. Lackman-Ancrenaz, M. Ancrenaz, Z. A. Jaffer, A. B. Etin, and all members of the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project for their help. We thank our research assistants, especially A. B. Arsih and M. S. B. A. Karim, for their support. Advice and support has been generously supplied by K. Watanabe, J. Yamagiwa, T. Iwakuma, N. Agetsuma and G. Hanya. We are certainly indebted to Y. Matsuda who helped us overcome many difficulties throughout our study. Finally, we are grateful to T. Sekijima and anonymous reviewers for their fruitful comments that improved this manuscript. This study includes data collection and analysis compiled using protocols approved by the Economic Planning Unit of the Malaysian Government and the Sabah Wildlife Department of Malaysia, and they adhered to the legal requirements of Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama, Aichi, 484-8506, Japan

    Ikki Matsuda

  2. Sabah Wildlife Department, 5th Floor, B Block, Wisma MUIS, 88100, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

    Augustine Tuuga

  3. Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Kita 10 Nishi 5, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Seigo Higashi

Authors
  1. Ikki Matsuda
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  2. Augustine Tuuga
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  3. Seigo Higashi
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Correspondence to Ikki Matsuda.

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Matsuda, I., Tuuga, A. & Higashi, S. Effects of water level on sleeping-site selection and inter-group association in proboscis monkeys: why do they sleep alone inland on flooded days?. Ecol Res 25, 475–482 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-009-0677-3

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