Ranging Behavior of Eastern Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock Leuconedys) in a Northern Montane Forest in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China
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Primates (2014) 55:239–247 DOI 10.1007/s10329-013-0394-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE Ranging behavior of eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys) in a northern montane forest in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China Dao Zhang • Han-Lan Fei • Sheng-Dong Yuan • Wen-Mo Sun • Qing-Yong Ni • Liang-Wei Cui • Peng-Fei Fan Received: 17 December 2012 / Accepted: 17 October 2013 / Published online: 13 November 2013 Ó Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan 2013 Abstract Generally, food abundance and distribution was patchily distributed within their total (14-month) home exert important influence on primate ranging behavior. range, and during most months they used only a small portion Hoolock gibbons (genus Hoolock) live in lowland and of their total home range. In order to find enough food, the montane forests in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China. group shifted its monthly home range according to the sea- All information about hoolock gibbons comes from studies sonal availability of food species. To satisfy their annual on western hoolock gibbons (Hoolock hoolock) living in food requirements, they occupied a total home range of lowland forest. Between August 2010 and September 2011, 93 ha. The absence of neighboring groups of gibbons and the we studied the ranging behavior of one habituated group of presence of tsaoko cardamom (Amomum tsaoko) plantations eastern hoolock gibbon (H. leuconedys) living in a seasonal may also have influenced the ranging behavior of the group. montane forest in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan, China. Results Further long-term studies of neighboring groups living in show that the study group did not increase foraging effort, intact forests are required to assess these effects. calculated in this study as the daily path length, when fruit was less available. Instead, the gibbons fed more on leaves Keywords Home range size Á Daily path length Á and decreased traveling to conserve energy. They relied Monthly home range Á Behavioral adaptation Á heavily on a single food species in most study months which Seasonal forest D. Zhang and H.-L. Fei contributed equally to this paper. Introduction D. Zhang Á H.-L. Fei Á W.-M. Sun Á P.-F. Fan (&) Institute of Eastern-Himalaya Biodiversity Research, Studies of habitat use and ranging behavior (home range size, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan 671000, daily path length, and home range use etc.) provide important People’s Republic of China e-mail: [email protected] insights into wildlife behavior and ecology. Generally, food abundance and distribution play the most influential roles in D. Zhang Á S.-D. Yuan Á W.-M. Sun Á L.-W. Cui (&) shaping primate ranging behavior (Di Bitetti 2001). Key Laboratory of Forest Disaster Warning and Control in Numerous studies have documented that primates adjust Yunnan Province, Southeast Forestry University, Kunming, Yunnan, People’s Republic of China their ranging behavior in response to seasonal variation in e-mail: [email protected] food availability and distribution (Clutton-Brock 1975;Di Bitetti 2001; Di Fiore 2003; Fan and Jiang 2008; Bartlett D. Zhang 2009). This relationship holds more strongly for frugivorous School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui 230601, primates such as gibbons than for folivorous primates People’s Republic of China (Clutton-Brock 1977) because of the higher spatial and seasonal variance in the availability of fruit compared to Q.-Y. Ni leaves (Janson and Chapman 1999) and the shorter digestion College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Yaan, Sichuan 625014, People’s time required for fruit than for leaves (Demment and Laca Republic of China 1991). Supporting this view, several studies have shown that 123 240 Primates (2014) 55:239–247 Table 1 Study site and home range size for different gibbon species Species Site Latitude (N) Altitude (m) Home range Reference (ha) Hoolock hoolock Sibsagar district, Assam 26.7 119 22 Tilson (1979) Lawachara, Bangladesh 24.5 20 35 Islam and Feeroz (1992) Lawachara, Bangladesh 24.5 20 63 Ahsan (2001) Chunati, Bangladesh 22.9 15 26 Ahsan (2001) Hylobates agilis Sungai Dal, Malaysia 4.8 500 29 Gittins (1982) H. klossii Paitan, Siberut, Indonesia 1.4 33 Whitten (1982) H. lar Krau Game, Malaysia 3.7 50 57 Raemaekers (1979) Mo Singto, Khao Yai, Thailand 14 800 23 Bartlett (2009) H. moloch Gunung Halimun-Salak, Java, 6.7 1,000 37 Kim et al. (2011) Indonesia CALS, Java, Indonesia 7.7 100 15 Malone (2007) H. albibarbis Sabangau, Kalimantan, Indonesia 2.5 15 47 Cheyne (2010) H. muelleri 9 agilis Barito Ulu, Kalimantan, Indonesia 0.2 200 45 McConkey et al. (2003) Symphalangus syndactylus Krau Game, Malaysia 3.7 50 47 Raemaekers (1979) Nomascus concolor Dazhaizi, Wuliang Mt. China 24.4 2,200 151 Fan and Jiang (2008) N. nasutus Bangliang, Guangxi, China 22.9 700 130 Fan et al. (2010) N. hainanus Bawangling, Hainan, China 19.1 1,000 400 Liu et al. (1989) frugivorous primate species, including gibbons, increase annual home range to satisfy their food requirements in their daily path length (DPL) and consequently their monthly different seasons. This may also be the case for gibbons. home range size when fruits comprise a greater proportion of Home range sizes of northern Nomascus gibbon populations their diet, or when fruit is more abundant (Cercocebus al- living in seasonal forest are substantially larger than those of bigena: Olupot et al. 1997; Ateles chamek: Wallace 2006; more southerly or lowland gibbon populations (Table 1). Nomascus concolor: Fan and Jiang 2008; Hylobates lar: Javan gibbons in higher elevation habitats have larger home Bartlett 2009). However, some other primate species have ranges than lowland conspecific groups (Kim et al. 2011; not shown the same responses to fruit abundance or con- Malone 2007; Table 1). However, the home range sizes of sumption (Kaplin 2001; Di Fiore 2003; Buzzard 2006). northern hoolock gibbons living in lowland forests are similar Kaplin (2001) found that neither overall abundance of fruit to those of southern gibbon populations (Table 1), probably resources in the home range nor overall proportion of fruit in due to the high density of fruit trees in lowland forests. the diet, but rather temporal and spatial availability of spe- The eastern hoolock gibbon (Hoolock leuconedys) is now cific fruit species, was related to ranging behavior in her considered a separate species from the western hoolock study groups of Cercopithecus lhoesti and C. mitis doggetti. gibbon (H. hoolock), based on distinctive fur coloration Di Fiore (2003) found ranging behavior of two highly fru- (Mootnick and Groves 2005). The eastern hoolock gibbon givorous woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii) occurs in China, Myanmar and India, east of the Chindwin groups was not related to habitat-wide abundance of ripe River (Groves 1967, 1972; Das et al. 2006; Brockelman et al. fruit, but to insect prey abundance. Buzzard (2006) sug- 2009; Fan et al. 2011). A recent survey in China recorded gested that the ranging behavior of Tai guenons (C. camp- only 40–43 groups and the total population was estimated to belli, C. petaurista, and C. diana) was more likely influenced be fewer than 200 individuals (Fan et al. 2011), although by resource monitoring and territorial defense. several thousands of the species may still occur in Myanmar Fruit productivity decreases with increasing latitude and and India (Das et al. 2006; Chetry et al. 2008; Brockelman altitude (Hanya and Aiba 2010), and fruiting seasonality also et al. 2009). This small population in China lives in an area increases with latitude (Ting et al. 2008). Primates living in situated at high altitude (1,600–2,700 m above sea level) and seasonal forests have shown seasonal variation in home northern latitude (N: 24°49–25°480) (Fan et al. 2011). range use as the distribution and abundance of their main This area is the most northerly location where gibbons are food sources changed seasonally (Cebus apella nigritus:Di known to live, and represents an extreme habitat for gibbons. Bitetti 2001; Callimico goeldii: Porter et al. 2007; R. bieti: During our study period, the annual mean temperature was Grueter et al. 2008; Ren et al. 2009; R. roxellana: Li et al. 13.3 °C and the forest was covered by snow on some days 2000, Tan et al. 2007). As a result, these groups used a large (Fan et al. 2013). Fruit productivity decreased nearly to zero 123 Primates (2014) 55:239–247 241 between December and February 2010 (Fan et al. 2013). track and observe both GA and female B. This research Therefore, ranging behavior from this population may pro- focused only on the family group GA, because it was very vide important insights into the behavioral adaptation of difficult to follow female B for full days (Fan et al. 2013). gibbons to an extreme habitat. In this paper, we report on the Because of the large home range and low frequency of ranging behavior of one habituated eastern hoolock gibbon singing, it was difficult to find the gibbons. In total, we group living in a high montane forest in Nankang, Gaoli- observed GA for 853 h over 103 days (monthly range gongshan, between August 2010 and September 2011. We 4–12, mean = 7.4 days), 63 of which (monthly range 2–6, tried to elucidate how the group adjusts its home range in mean = 4.5 days) were full-day follows, starting when the response to seasonal variations in food availability and dis- gibbons left their sleeping trees until they settled to sleep in tribution. However, an important feature that needs to be the evening. The sample size was comparable to most borne in mind is the isolation of this group, without any gibbon studies regarding ranging patterns (Gittins 1982; neighboring groups that might affect its range boundaries.