Abstract
Data on sleeping site selection were collected for a group of black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus bieti; around 80) at Mt. Fuhe, Yunnan, China (99°20′E, 26°25′N, about 3,000 m asl) from November 2000 to January 2002. At the site mainly three vegetation types were present in an elevation-ascending order: deciduous broad leaf forest, mixed coniferous and broad leaf forest, and dark coniferous forest. In addition, bamboo forest presented in areas burned in 1958. Sleeping sites (n =10) were located in the coniferous forest, where trees were the tallest, bottommost branches were the highest, the diameter of crowns was the second largest, and the gradient of the ground was the steepest. Monkeys usually kept quiet during entering and staying at a sleeping site. The site choice and the quietness may be tactics to avoid potential predators. In the coniferous forest, however, monkeys did not sleep in the valley bottom where trees were the largest, but frequently slept in the middle of the slope towards the east/southeast, in the shadow of ridges in three other directions, to avoid strong wind and to access sunshine; in winter-spring, they ranged in a more southern and lower area than in summer-autumn. These may be behavioral strategies to minimize energy stress in the cold habitat. Monkeys often slept in the same sleeping site on consecutive nights, which reflected a reduced pressure of predation probably due to either the effectiveness of anti-predation through sleeping site selection, or the population decline of predators with increasing human activities in the habitat. The group’s behavioral responses to interactive and sometimes conflicting traits of the habitat are site-specific and conform to expectations for a temperate zone primate.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grants KSCX2-1-03 and KSCX2-1-09). We are grateful to the Forestry Bureau of Lanping Country, and the Weather Bureau of Lanping County for their general support and help. We thank W. Ding for valuable information on predators of R. bieti in Tacheng and X.W. Duan, D.Z. Yang and L.S. Yang for their assistance in the field. Thanks are also given to Drs U. Reichard, H. Ogawa and other anonymous reviewers for valuable comments and critical work on the language expression of this manuscript.
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Liu, ZH., Zhao, QK. Sleeping sites of Rhinopithecus bieti at Mt. Fuhe, Yunnan. Primates 45, 241–248 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-004-0091-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-004-0091-y