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Seasonally Consistent Small Home Range and Long Ranging Distance in Presbytis rubicunda in Danum Valley, Borneo

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Abstract

Seasonal fluctuation in food availability is a universal problem for wild animals. One common response to dietary changes is to modify ranging patterns. We studied the ranging pattern of one group (8–12 individuals) of red leaf monkeys (Presbytis rubicunda) in the lowland dipterocarp forest of Danum Valley, Borneo from December 2006 to December 2008. The seasonal availability of fruits varies significantly in this forest because of mast fruiting. We tested the hypothesis that changes in ranging pattern are linked with seasonal changes in diet in this species. We recorded activity, foods eaten, and location every 10 min from around 06:00 until 16:00 h, 5–10 days/mo. The home range size was 21.4 ha over the 25-mo study (95% kernel contour). There were no statistically significant relationships between feeding times on the four major nonexclusive dietary components (all species of seeds, all species of young leaves, young leaves of Spatholobus macropterus, and other species of young leaves) and either the home range (95% kernel contour) or the core area (50% kernel contour). The areas used in the seed-eating and non-seed-eating seasons overlapped to a large extent. The daily path length was 1160 ± 340 m (mean ± SD, range: 550–2140 m). Neither daily path length nor monthly mean travel rate was significantly related to feeding time on any of the four major dietary components. The group’s ranging patterns may be related to the unusual fallback strategy of this population, which depends on the young leaves of an abundant liana (S. macropterus), which are available in small patches. The monkeys need only a small home range because of the high abundance of these leaves. However, they range a relatively long distance because the patches of S. macropterus are easily depleted; thus the ranging distance does not decrease in non-seed-eating periods.

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Acknowledgments

This study would not have been possible without the hard work of our field assistants, Syamsudin Jail, Sharry bin Mustah, Saharudin Idos, Unding Jami, Sallehudin Jail, and Rayner Jupili. We are greatly indebted to the staff of the Danum Valley Field Centre and our colleagues there for their hospitality and help, in particular Jimmy Omar, Mike Bernadus, Glen Reynolds, Tomoko Kanamori, Noko Kuze, and Siew Te Wong. The Economy Planning Unit of Malaysia, the State of Sabah, and the Danum Valley Management Committee of Yayasan Sabah permitted our study. Drs. Jo Setchell, Jessica Rothman, Andrew J. J. MacIntosh, and two anonymous reviewers offered us helpful comments. This study was financed by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Core-to-Core Program (HOPE); Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Overseas Fellows, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B (No. 20770195) and A (No. 22687002) and Scientific Research B (No. 25291100) to G. Hanya; Primate Society of Japan; and the Global Centers of Excellence (COE) Program “Formation of a Strategic Base for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Research: From Genome to Ecosystem.”

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

    Goro Hanya

  2. Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

    Henry Bernard

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  1. Goro Hanya
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Correspondence to Goro Hanya.

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Hanya, G., Bernard, H. Seasonally Consistent Small Home Range and Long Ranging Distance in Presbytis rubicunda in Danum Valley, Borneo. Int J Primatol 37, 390–404 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-016-9907-z

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