Nutritional Adaptation Mechanism Of Female In Rhinopithecus Roxellana Feeding Group

Females play a very important role in population reproductions, for example, the number of female individuals, time interval of female reproduction and number of litters are all important factors of reproductive fitness. For mammals, they also experience complicated menstrual periods (gestation, lactation and non-gestation non-lactation). As primates, female golden sub-nosed monkeys follow the basic mammalian pattern, but tend to have slower rate of development, longer lifespans, and longer reproduction period. Meanwhile, they live in a high elevation and seasonal climate area, which mean the nutritional requirement of these females are important and unique. With development of nutritional ecology, it is possible to measure and analyze their complicated nutritional requirement and strategy with nutritional ecology models.With focal animal sampling and continuous recording, we recorded feeding behaviors of 11 females of golden sub-nosed monkey in 52 days,6.90±0.29h hours per day. Duration of feeding behave, the amount of food which been consumed (estimated in grams by counting the number of food items consumed [e.g, one leaf or half of one leaf or one bite of fruit], and plant part and plant species which been consumed were recorded, and food samples were collected for nutrient analysis. Crude protein, lipids, water soluble carbohydrate (WSC), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and ash contents were analyzed for nutritional requirement describe. With energy intake analyze and Geometric Framework model, we found that:1. In winter female golden snub-nosed monkey’s energy intake significantly higher than in spring; and lactation female need more energy than non-lactation female in the same season.2. Energy intake of female golden sub-nosed monkey sequentially structured by carbohydrate, protein, lipid; in winter they all tend to intake most carbohydrate, while in spring non-lactation females tent to intake more protein than lactation females.3. Female golden sub-nosed monkey maintained a balance of non-protein energy intake/protein energy intake (NPE/P), in different seasons and menstrual periods, they balance they nutrient intake by regulate the ratio of this NPE/P balance.