Sleeping tree species selection and patterns of sleeping site use in a wild group of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys(Rhinopithecus bieti)at Jinsichang,Lijiang,China
Studies of sleeping site use in wild primates offer insights into species-specific patterns of ranging and habitat utilization.From December 2003 to October 2004,we recorded sleeping site use in a wild group of 180 Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys(Rhinopithecus bieti)at Jinsichang,Lijiang City,Yunnan Province,China.A programmed auto-released GPS collar was used to track the movements of the monkeys.We obtained 272 GPS nighttime locations and visually confirmed 131 sleeping sites within the group's 17.8 km2 home range.Seventy(53.4％)sleeping sites were used on on-ly one occasion,whereas the remaining 61(46.6％)were used between 2 and 9 times over the 11-month tracking period.On three occasions the monkeys slept in the same site during three consecutive nights and on 16 occasions they reused the same sleeping site on two consecutive nights.Re-use of sleeping areas over consecutive nights accounted for only 7.0％of our sample and principally occurred during the winter months of November-April(84.0％compared to the rest of the year).The average time interval between the reuse of the same sleeping site was 50 days.Daily travel distance was significantly shorter(527 m vs.884 m)when sleeping sites were reused on consecutive nights.Sleeping sites of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys were used in relation to their proximity to late afternoon and next day early morning feed-ing sites.Given the large size of the snub-nosed monkey group,we argue that limited reuse of sleeping sites represents a pattern of habitat exploitation characterized by the avoidance of recently visited areas and a foraging strategy of search-ing for scattered but highly productive feeding sites that are widely distributed across their home range.Furthermore,the monkeys highly selected Himalayan hemlock(Tsuga dumosa)as sleeping trees and rarely fed in trees that were used as sleep nighttime sleeping sites.
万方数据
维普
