Reports
Program No.18-059
Community ecology of primates in Danum Valley Conservation Area
Goro Hanya
21st December, 2006 - 6th January, 2007
Place of visit: Danum Valley Conservation Area
I have started a project on community ecology of diurnal primates in
the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. In 2006, I
conducted field research three times in September, October-November and
December. While I am not there, my Malaysian assistants continue data
sampling.
From the beginning of the project, I have conducted primate census,
orangutan nest census and fallen fruit census using the trails of the
total length 9.9 km. In addition, I follow a group of red leaf monkeys,
which can be encountered most often and are easy to follow to collect
preliminary data on the diet and ranging.
I stayed in the Danum Valley for 8 days from 22-29 December 2006, and
followed a red leaf monkey group for 27 hours for 27 hours. This time, I
started systematic behavioral data collection by scan sampling. Every 10
minutes, I recorded activity (resting/feeding/moving/grooming), height of
the animal and height of the tree. When they eat foods, I collected food
samples for later identification.
The group was quite habituated, and their ranging was not so fast, so
it was not difficult to follow them. On day, I follow the group for 9
hours and 40 minutes. I would like to continue data collection and clarify
the basic ecological characteristics, such as diet and activity budget.
On 3 January 2007, I made briefing on the progress report of the
project at Sabah Economy Planning Unit for the renewal of research pass..
Although I showed data of only September and October, they admitted that
the project is going well. I also talked with Dr. Henry Bernard at
Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, University Malaysia Sabah
on the present status of the project. On 5 January, I visited Federal
Economy Planning Unit at Kuala Lumpur and applied the renewal of the
research pass.
Red-leaf monkey
Food of red-leaf monkeys
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