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Selection of food and ranging behaviour in a sexually monomorphic folivorous lemur: Lepilemur ruficaudatus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2004

Jörg U. Ganzhorn
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Ecology and Conservation, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany Deutsches Primatenzentrum, Kellnerweg 4, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Thomas Pietsch
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Ecology and Conservation, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Joanna Fietz
Affiliation:
Abteilung Experimentelle Ökologie, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
Sabine Gross
Affiliation:
Zoologisches Institut der Universität Göttingen, Untere Karspüle, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Jutta Schmid
Affiliation:
Abteilung Experimentelle Ökologie, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
Nathalie Steiner
Affiliation:
Biometrie und Populationsgenetik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26–32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
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Abstract

Monomorphic lemurs of Madagascar allow us to investigate whether there are behavioural mechanisms that compensate for sex-specific differences in the costs of maintenance and reproduction in arboreal primates. Food selection of the pair-living Lepilemur ruficaudatus was studied in relation to food chemistry, and travel distances were measured as possible indications of differential investment in ranging activities (possibly related to the defence of territories and/or mating opportunities). Fourteen females and 14 males were radio-tracked for a total of 365 half-nights (from dusk to midnight or from midnight to dawn) at different times of the year (birth, lactation and weaning, pre-mating, post-mating). When based on monthly means, the two sexes did not differ in nightly travel distances. Food selection of females and males did not differ in relation to the chemical composition of leaves, but fruits consumed by females had lower fibre contents than fruits consumed by males. Even though other behavioural data are fragmentary, little evidence exists for behavioural mechanisms in L. ruficaudatus to compensate for the different energetic costs of females and males.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 The Zoological Society of London

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