| From April2005to August2006, we selected a group of wild golden snub-nosed monkey {Rhinopithecus roxellana) around Dalongtan Protection Station (31°29’663" N;110°18’205" E, altitude:2160m) of Shennongjia National Nature Reserve (SNNR),Huibei Prov.,China and habituated the monkeys using direct tracking method. From Feb.2006to Feb.2013, we identified the individuals by their physical characteristics and used behaviral sampling method, all-occurrence recording method and focal animal sampling method to analyzed the responses of the monkeys to researchers, the transfering and dispersal of the individuals with-in and inter-groups, the process of OMU succession and the role of individual, exchange status between two groups, the differeces of responese to researchers and dispersal statements of monkeys from different age-sex classes.The results showed as follows:1. by about one year of uninterrupted tracking, approaching the focal monkeys and provisioning food in winter, we successfully habituated a group of monkeys.The study also showed that winter (Oct. to April) is the best season for habituation of the golden snub-nosed monkeys in Shennongjia;Rational use of man-made and natural geographical factors which monkeys are unwilling to use such as roads, natural streams, ridges, meadow areas, a small amount to interference and control the activities of the monkeys can significantly accelerate habituation.2.Providing food as much as possible in an area of100m length*50m width every10m on the routes of monkeys in winter is a useful method for habituation.The provisioned food caould be including prominently colorful fruits including apples, oranges, carrots, which are covered by leaves and lichens which monkeys prefers. When monkeys enter the feeding area, arranging someones’activities around its route but don’t be too close the monkey so as to avoid increasing their stranded time and opportunity contact to food provision. This process should be repeated severe times so that the monkeys could identify and eat provisioned food after several trials.3.During tracking habituation period, the daily mean following time increased from about5min.(April,2006) to10h (May,2006). The results of ANOVA showed that the following time in early and later habituation period were significantly different (p=0, F=73.803, df=16); Mean escaping distance decreased from620m to20m. In later habituation period, the monkeys even sometimes showed no escape behavior. Mean escaping distance in early and later habituation period were significant different (ANOVA:p=0.001, F=18.411, df=16). The monkeys showed escaping behavior (more than80%) to the observer in early habituation period;leave away, vigilance behavior accounted for64%in middle period; Almost ignore behavior (73%) and only about4%of the individuals showed escaping behavior in the later period.4.In the early provisioned period, individuals in different age-sex classes exhibited great different behaviors when observer approaching them:individual with ignore behavior accounted for the following percentage in total behaviors (from high to low):AMU sub-adult(41.10%), AMU male adult(34.50%), AMU young&juvenile(28.60%), OMU young&juvenile(13.70%), resident male (6.20%) and female (3.40%). Individual with Leave away quickly behavior accounted for the following percentage in total behaviors (from high to low): resident male (22.80%), OMU young&juvenile (15.30%), female (13.50%), AMU adult (11.70%), AMU young&juvenile (8.40%) and AMU sub-adult (5.70%). OMU individuals performance more tolerant to observer approaching than AMU individuals.5.The results of individual transfer and dispersal showed that, totally,21female golden snub-nosed monkeys of Dalongtan provisioned population condected64within-group transfer since Jun.27,2007to Oct.10,2012, excluding the young females (0-3years old) which transfered with their mothers. These transfer events involved14adult females,7sub-adult females and10young&juvenile females. Some females showed migeration behaviors in their yougster, sub-adulthood and adulthood ages. But, five adult females never transfered in our study, including Duanweiba and Tuantuan. There were three reasons for female dispersal: resident male replacement (37times,57.8%), female choosing (22times,34.4%) and taking over (5times,7.8%). Based on the results of Fisher’s exact test, no significant differences of dispersal behaviors could be detected between adult and minor females (p=0.141) in the provisioned group; the possibility of multiple transfers was significantly greater than that of transfer only one time (Fisher’s exact test:p=0.001); whereas, for the causes of transfers, the possibility of resident male replacement was significantly greater than female choosing and taking over (Fisher’s exact test:p=0.038). In the recorded transfer events,16young and juvenile males migerated from OMU to AMU when they were3to4years old.6.From Feb.2006to Feb.2013(7years), we recorded41inter-group dispersal events with72individuals (26immigrations and46emmigrations). Emmigration was significantly greater than immigration (Fisher’s exact test:p=0.044). Dispersal behavior were closely related to feeding, tourism, human disturbance. Within these72inter-group dispersal individuals,63individuals were males (87.5%) and9were females (12.5%). The possibility of inter-group dispersal was significantly higher in males than females (Fisher’s exact test:p=0.015). Although no obvious reasons could be found for the dispersal events, almost all these events occurred in the contacting periods of these two monkey groups. Thus, both sexes of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys in Shennongjia involved in the behaviors of transfer and dispersal both within and inter groups, so as to increase their reproduction success and avoid inbreeding. 7.0ur results showed that9males (including two sub-adults) lead or participated17competition events for the leaderships and established11OMUs by initiately challenging, taking over and female choosing. In the13resident male replacement events,6serious fighting occured between males, seven dominant males were smoothly transition (which might be related to female choosing). Furthermore,3infanticide events were recorded in2new resident males after the replacement behaviors in our study. |
