Diet, Activity Patterns And Time Budgets Of Assam Macaque (Macaca Assamensis) In Longgang Nature Reserve, China

The Assam macaque(Macaca assamensis)has been listed as first-level protected species under China's law. The monkey is listed Appendix II by CITES and it is classified as an threatened primate species by IUCN. Due to human activities,their habitats are destroyed seriously,which causes very great population declines.However,up to now, little is known about the wild species.In order to protect this species, we collected dada on diet, activity patterns and time budgets via instantaneous scan sampling and ad libitum sampling in Longgang Nature Reserve(22°13′56″～22°33′19″N,106°46′28″～107°04′19″E). The main results were as follows:1.Diet: Ninty-eight plant species were used as foods by Assam macaque of Longgang Nature Reserve, including Ninty plant species were selected by Nongrong group and seventy-two plant species were selected by Nongma group. The type of foods includes 72 species of tree, 15 species of vines,3 species of herbs in Nongrong group. And Nongma group selected 62 species of tree, 7 species of vines,3 species of herbs. Over a full annual cycle,63.5% of feeding on foods of Nongrong group was on leaves,comprising 61.1% young leaves and 2.4% mature leaves,25.5% on fruit, 4.9% on flowers, 2.3% on petioles (including 1.5% young petioles),1.1% on bark and 0.4% on root.Other items (including invertebrates,other animal matter,fungi and unkown items) accounted for 2.3% of feeding. In Nongma group,70.8% of feeding on foods was on leaves,comprising 69% young leaves and 1.8% mature leaves,21.8% on fruit, 1.4% on flowers, 4.2% on petioles (including 3.1% young petioles),0 on bark and 0.2% on root.Other items (including invertebrates,other animal matter,fungi and unkown items) accounted for 1.6% of feeding. There was marked seasonal variation in the use of different food categories.The monkeys fed on young leaves and fruit in the dry season and fed on more plant species and food categories in the rainy season. The diet of the study troop was flexible and could not be assigned to a simple dietary category, such as frugivorous or folivorous. Although the monkeys exploited a wide variety of plant species, they mostly fed on a selected few species. About 59.5% of the feeding observations were recorded from six species in Nongrong group, and 58.2% were from the same six species in Nongma group.And Indocalamus calcicolus was the most important food,it accounted for 41.3% of feeding in Nongrong group and 43% of feeding in Nongma group. There was seasonal variations in distribution of feeding activity in different hill parts,and cliff was the most important site accounted for 60.5%,and 7.3% on peak,19.2% on middle of hill, 13.0% on lower of hill and 0 on ground.2.Activity patterns and time budgets: The diurnal activity pattern of Assam Macaque did not show significant difference over the course of a year. But the percentage,peak value and duration of various behaviors were different in different time. There were significant variations in the diurnal activity patterns of Assam macaque according to season. The monkeys spent more time feeding in most diurnal hours in the dry season than in the rainy season. A long-time resting peak occurred between 7:00 and 10:00 in the diurnal activity patterns of the dry season. In the rainy season, there was a long-time resting peak occurred between 10:00 and 12:00. During the study period, monkeys spent an average of 39.6% resting, 33.2% for moving, 18.3% for feeding and 5.1% for grooming, 2.4 %for playing and 1.4% for other behaviors, respectively.Their time budgets showed significant seasonal variations: a greater proportion of time was spent on feeding and less time on resting in the dry season than in the rainy season.They also differed among different sex-age classes: immatures spent more time playing, whereas adults devoted more time to resting and grooming.