From August 2007 to June 2008,the diet and social structure of a group of gray snub-nosed monkeys(Rhinopithecus brelichi) were studied at Yangaoping in Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve,Guizhou.The results revealed that the gray snub-nosed monkey mainly fed on leaves,buds,fruits and flowers,accounting for 33.5%,29.1%,24.3%,and 6.9% of their diet,respectively.Besides those main food items,bark,calyxes and insects were also recorded.The social unit of the species is multi-female,single-male units,and these social units(or families) often ranged and rested together in large,semi-cohesive bands.At least one all-male unit,which was composed of 2-5 adult and sub-adult males was found on the periphery of the bands.The adult sex ratio(male vs female,excepting the all-male group) was 1∶2.5.These bands displayed a temporary fission-fusion phenomenon.In summer and autumn the bands form large aggregations of over 400 animals,but in winter the bands split up temporarily into several small groups with 50-200 animals.
How animals allocate their time to various activities has significant consequences for their survival because they reflectthe different constraints on time-energy balances. Many ecological variables, such as day length, temperature, food availability,are supposed to effect on activity budgets allocation of temperate primates. To examine the potential influence of these threevariables, the activity budgets of Rhinopithecus bieti was studied at Xiaochangdu, Tibet from June 2003 to March 2005. Pearsoncorrelations were utilized to assess potential relationships between activity budget and day length, food availability and temperature,and stepwise multiple regressions to identify the priority of resting and other activities (activities besides feeding, movingand resting). Time spent resting and doing 'other activities' is positively related to day length, temperature and food availability.No significant correlations were found between feeding/moving time and any of these variables. This suggests that foraging time(feeding + moving) takes priority over rest and other activities. Day length and foraging time (as independent variables) wererelated to the time spent in the other two activities besides feeding/moving (as dependent variables). Both time spent testing andin 'other activities' were highly significant positive functions of day length, with the latter a highly significant negative functionof feeding time and moving time. Resting time may therefore be interpreted as taking priority over 'other activities' time. Theseresults provide further evidence of the importance of day length, temperature and food availability to seasonal activity
Guizhou snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus brelichi) is a unique, endangered primate in China, mainly distributed in Fanjing Mountain National Natural Reserve, Guizhou Province, in an area of 275 km2. Recently, habitat loss and fragmentation have caused population isolation. To assess genetic diversity within this species and its population structure, we sequenced 400 bp of the hypervariable I segment from the mitochondrial DNA control region for 128 individuals. Only one haplotype was identified from these individuals. Compared with other primate species, R. brelichi can be regarded as a species with very low genetic diversity, which further adds to the conservation concern.
PAN HuiJuanSHI FangLeiCHANG ZongFeiXIANG ZuoFuSUN TingTingLIU ZhiJinLIMing
Tourism has been widely used as a conservation strategy that directly compensates local people or management authorities, thereby contributing to development and creating incentives to preserve the landscape. Reserves or parks that are inhabited by flagship species may be able to generate more revenue through tourism than those without such species because flagship species have great potential for raising funds and creating publicity for conservation goals. In this paper, we examine flagship species tourism focused on observing the golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) in Shennongjia National Nature Reserve (SNNR). After the program was launched in 2006, both the number of tourists and amount of revenue received by SNNR increased as the general trends of tourism revenue in the country also increased. As a result, SNNR significantly increased rein- vestment in tourism and conservation infrastructure. Furthermore, after senior politicians visited the golden snub-nosed monkey, they abruptly changed their attitudes toward biological conservation, as indicated by an increase in both regular and additional funding for the species conservation. We conclude that flagship species tourism may not only generate revenue for conservation and management but also can improve officials' attitudes toward preserving biodiversity. However, it is important to ensure the continued safety and sustainability of such programs, from both the human and animal perspective, and we suggest stricter measures are introduced to reduce the risk of aerosol disease transmission from tourists to the monkeys.
Food distribution and predation pressure are considered to be the main ecological factors that influence the use of forest strata(basically arboreality vs.terrestriality)in non-human primates.Here,we investigate ground use of wild,unprovisioned black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys Rhinopithecus bieti by means of the scan sampling method.The results show that the monkeys spent 15.0% of the day time on the ground;16.6%,12.7%,and 15.6% for adult males,adult females and juveniles,respectively.Adult males and juveniles of both sexes showed significantly higher rates of terrestrial time than adult females.Females without clinging infants spent significantly more time on the ground than expected,while females with clinging infants spent significantly less time on the ground than expected.These results suggest that the higher degree of terrestrial behavior for males and juveniles may be due to their higher agility in comparison with females.Our study showed that the monkeys fed more on lichens relative to other food items when in the trees,but more on buds/leaves,flowers,fruits/nuts,resin/bark,and herbs when on the ground.According to our investigation,the ecological significance of the species' terrestriality lies mainly in the utilization of terrestrial food
