Geographic and Environmental Variation in Activity Budget and Dietary Habits of Javan Langur (Trachypithecus auratus)
Abstract
Environmental and climatic conditions affect food abundance, affecting
animals' dietary composition and diversity. Activity budgets are key information
for evaluating the feeding strategy of primates. This study aims to analyze the
effects of geographic and environmental factors on activity budget and dietary
habits of Javan langurs (Trachypithecus auratus) across their geographical range or
among forest types. This study’s data were gathered by conducting a web-based
survey of the activity budget and dietary habits of the Javan langur. This study
analyzed relationships between the geographical/environmental and activity,
dietary composition, and social/behavioral aspects by the Spearman’s rank
correlation tests and tested differences in the above variables among three forest
types by the Kruskal-Wallis tests. The langurs’ diets were composed of foliage
(49.0-75.7%), fruits (21.6-48.1%), and flowers (2.7-23.0%). The activities of the
langurs were mainly composed of feeding (range: 20.2-44.2%), moving (9.8-
32.1%), resting (9.3-43.6%), and social behavior (2.5-28.9%). There were no
significant differences between forest types and activity budget and dietary habits
of the langurs and no significant correlations between geographic/environmental
variations and their activity budget and dietary habits. The folivorous-based diets
and their specialized digestive strategy would be the main reason for the lack of
regional variation in activity and dietary habits.
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