Dietary diversity of an ecological and macronutritional generalist primate in a harsh high‐latitude habitat, the Taihangshan macaque (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis)

Abstract

Recent advances in niche theory have stressed the importance of understanding dietary generalism at multiple levels, including the range of habitat and foods exploited by a species, foods exploited within populations, and patterns of nutrient intake. Here we apply this framework to examine the dietary strategy of the Macaca mulatta, a primate species that is second only to humans in their breadth of geographical distribution, and occupy diverse ecological habitats from cold temperate to tropical latitudes. A recent study showed that the Taihangshan subspecies (M. mulatta tcheliensis) in China, which is found at the northern latitudinal limit of the species range, respond to ecologically constrained interannual variation in the macronutrient ratios of the spring diet in a way that theory predicts should be associated with ecological generalism. Here we further extend this study, examining the relationships between seasonal variation in food availability and the patterns of food selection across a full year. We found that, despite the ecological and macronutritional generalism of the species, Taihangshan macaques subsist on a relatively small range of foods (57 different foods, spread across 8 categories comprising seeds, fruits, buds, flowers, leaves, herbs, young bark, and twigs), but face considerable seasonal variation in the combinations available. In spring and summer, when seeds were scarce, leaves accounted for 60.3 ± 13.8% of their diet (dry matter[DM] %), and herbs contributed 31.7 ± 22.2%. However, in autumn and winter, when seeds were abundant, they contributed 68.5 ± 22.7% of the diet while herbs accounted for 18.9 ± 12.9% on a DM. Although young bark and twigs were available in all seasons, the macaques only fed on them in winter. We present comparative data from the literature on the diets of M. mulatta and other Macaca species, to interpret this pattern of resource use within the framework of multilevel niche theory. K E Y W O R D Sdietary generalism, food availability, food selection, high-latitude habitats, Macaca mulatta tcheliensis, niche theory, nutritional complementarity, nutritional geometry Am J Primatol. 2019;81:e22965.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ajp

The gut microbiota of gibbons across host genus and captive site in China

“…These families also reside in the gut of rhesus macaques ( Macaca mulatta ) at similar relative abundance (Chen et al, 2020; Wu et al, 2020). Although the rhesus macaque is an omnivore, in some seasons they feed on large quantities of leaves (Cui et al, 2019). Both Nomascus and hoolock gibbons at Guangzhou Zoo had higher proportion of Ruminococcaceae than those at other zoos (Table ).…”

Cold and hungry: combined effects of low temperature and resource scarcity on an edge‐of‐range temperate primate, the golden snub‐nose monkey

“…However, the other two species, Macaca fuscata and Macaca mulatta , are dietary generalists and have the advantage of switching between seasonally abundant resources, which is not the case for golden snub‐nosed monkeys. The rhesus macaque Macaca mullata , for example, predominately eats abundant seeds in autumn and winter and leaves in spring and summer (Cui et al 2019). In contrast, the largely folivorous golden snub‐nosed monkey (Hou et al 2018) faces more acute dietary challenges during seasons when leaves are not abundant, particularly in winter when energy demands for thermoregulation are high (Guo et al 2018).…”

Nutritional Dimensions of Invasive Success

“…Complementary food switching in response to food scarcity has been observed in the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) that alternates between seston and detritus when access to phytoplankton is limited [91], as well as in Nile perch in Lake Victoria that switched from increasingly rare cichlids to aquatic invertebrates and other fish taxa [92]. Dramatic relaxation of food selectivity during periods of scarcity has also been observed in the rat (Rattus rattus) [12], macaque (Macaca fascicularis) [93,94], fox (Vulpes vulpes) [95], and mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) [96].…”