Dietary flexibility of Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) in southern Ethiopia: effects of habitat degradation and life in fragments.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding the effects of habitat modification on the feeding strategies of threatened species is essential to designing effective conservation management plans. Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) are endemic to the rapidly shrinking montane forests of the southern Ethiopian Highlands. Most populations inhabit continuous bamboo forest subsisting largely on the young leaves and shoots of a single species of bamboo. Because of habitat disturbance in recent decades, however, there are now also several dozen small populations inhabiting isolated forest fragments where bamboo has been degraded. During 12-months, we assessed Bale monkey responses to habitat degradation by comparing habitat composition, phenological patterns, and feeding ecology in a largely undisturbe

SUBMITTER: Mekonnen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5801891 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature