Abstract
In animal husbandry, diets should help in maintaining a healthy body condition, support reproduction, and promote species-specific longevity. It is recommended to feed folivorous primates kept in zoos a high-fiber diet, i.e., leaves, although satisfying such a requirement is challenging in temperate regions because it is difficult to obtain fresh leaves, especially in autumn and winter. As equally important for their appropriate treatment, it is valuable to provide details of clinical reports of medical problems and pathological findings, although such clinical reports are rather limited. Therefore, in foregut-fermenting proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus), we (1) described the individual clinical reports of renal disease and weight loss at the Yokohama Zoological Gardens in Japan, (2) determined the nutritional profile of the diets supplied to these animals because other potential triggers for their renal disease and weight loss could be excluded, (3) modified the diet regimen to minimize weight loss and the development of hypercalcemia and hypophosphatemia, and (4) assessed the effects of such dietary modification by comparing the body weight and the Ca and P concentrations and the Ca/P ratios in the blood before and after diet modification with a comparison of these measurements between zoo and free-ranging individuals. Based on the nutritional profile of the diets, we concluded that the reported cases of renal failure might be caused by consumption of leaves with a Ca/P ratio far above the appropriate level in autumn and winter. Additionally, the dietary modification of minerals and metabolizable energy achieved certain beneficial effects on zoo-kept proboscis monkeys.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all staff and veterinarians at YZG who are committed to managing and improving the health management of proboscis monkeys; we are especially grateful to Miya Ueda and Ryuta Kawasaki. We also thank the Sabah Biodiversity Centre, the Sabah Forestry Department, and the Sabah Wildlife Department for granting us permission to conduct this research in Sabah, Malaysia, and the Wildlife Rescue Unit rangers for their assistance in the field. We are grateful for the support from Dr. Danica J. Stark, Dr. Rosa Sipangkui and our research assistants in the field. We would also like to thank Marcus Clauss as well as an unknown reviewer for their very helpful comments on this manuscript. Finally, we would like to commemorate the four monkeys that died of renal disease.
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SH, IM, and MY developed the initial concept; AA performed necropsies of zoo individuals; SH conducted in situ sample collection and analyses; SKSSN, DARS and IM conducted sample collection in the field; BG and MSL analyzed the blood samples from free-ranging individuals; SS, AT, BG, and MSL arranged the sampling from the zoo and free-ranging animals; SH, IM, and MY performed and interpreted the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript; MY organized the project. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.
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Appendix
Appendix
See Fig. 6 and Tables 1, 2, 3, 4.
Individual status of eight proboscis monkeys at YZG, Japan. Niko and Emi are the infants of Kinanty × Jaka, respectively. Jasmine is the infant of Apuru ×Genki. B indicates the day an animal was born at YZG; C indicates the day an animal came from the Surabaya Zoo, Indonesia; and D indicates the date of death
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Hoshino, S., Seino, S., Azumano, A. et al. Modifying the diets of captive proboscis monkeys in a temperate zoo to reduce weight loss and renal disease. Primates 64, 123–141 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01031-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-022-01031-y