Factors Affecting Leaf Selection by Foregut-fermenting Proboscis Monkeys: New Insight from in vitro Digestibility and Toughness of Leaves.

ABSTRACT: Free-living animals must make dietary choices in terms of chemical and physical properties, depending on their digestive physiology and availability of food resources. Here we comprehensively evaluated the dietary choices of proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) consuming young leaves. We analysed the data for leaf toughness and digestibility measured by an in vitro gas production method, in addition to previously reported data on nutrient composition. Leaf toughness, in general, negatively correlated with the crude protein content, one of the most important nutritional factors affecting food selection by leaf-eating primates. This result suggests that leaf toughness assessed by oral sensation might be a proximate cue for its protein content. We confirmed the importance of the leaf chemical

SUBMITTER: Matsuda I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5314408 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature