Vol. 60, 2021

(update: 2021.08.18; 11.16)
 

Dietary Habits of Free-ranging Banded Langur (Presbytis femoralis) in a Secondary-human Modified Forest in Johor, Malaysia

Mohd Faudzir Najmuddin^1,2, Hidayah Haris^1,2, Noratiqah Norazlimi², Farhani Ruslin³, Ikki Matsuda^4,5,6,7, Badrul Munir Md-Zain³, and Muhammad Abu Bakar Abdul-Latiff^1,2,*

¹Oasis Integrated Group (OIG), Institute for Integrated Engineering (I2E), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja 86400, Johor. *Correspondence: E-mail: latiff@uthm.edu.my (Abdul-Latiff).
E-mail: najmuddin1107@gmail.com (Najmuddin); hidyharis@gmail.com (Haris)
²Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (Pagoh Campus), Muar 84600, Johor, Malaysia, Johor. E-mail: atiqah@uthm.edu.my (Norazlimi)
³Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. E-mail: fahanih20@yahoo.com (Ruslin); abgbadd1966@yahoo.com (Md-Zain)
⁴Chubu University Academy of Emerging Sciences, 1200, Matsumoto-cho, Kasugai-shi, Aichi 487-8501, Japan. E-mail: ikki-matsuda@isc.chubu.ac.jp (Matsuda)
⁵Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University, Japan.
⁶Japan Monkey Centre, Japan.
⁷Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia.

Received 16 March 2021 / Accepted 9 August 2021
Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan

Banded langurs, Presbytis femoralis, are distributed in southern Peninsular Malaysia, i.e., Johor and its borders including Singapore. It has been estimated that there are only < 250 mature individuals of P. femoralis in Malaysia and Singapore, and the species is currently considered Critically Endangered. The dietary information of P. femoralis and even other closely related species has rarely been reported. This study, therefore, aimed to describe the species dietary habits and discuss interaction between their feeding behaviour and its surrounding. This study was conducted from February to November 2018, with 15 sampling days each month. We collected a total of 186 sighting hours, using a scan sampling method with 10-min intervals, on a five-langur focal group. We identified 29 species based on 47 items consumed by the banded langur, mostly young leaves (51%) followed by fruits (45%), and flowers (3.8%). The study group spent slightly more time consuming non-cultivated plants but relied on cultivated plants for the fruits. Over 75% of fruit feeding involved consuming cultivar plants; in most cases (73%), they ate only the pulp, not the seeds. Since the cultivated plants were planted in human settlement, there is an urgent need to implement conservation measures to untangle the human-langur conflicts—for instance, reforestation of a buffer region using non-cultivated plants. There is a potential to build upon our new findings with more detailed investigations, such as more extensive ecological factors influencing the dietary adaptation which would be necessary to support conservation efforts and management decisions of this species.

Key words: Primate, Pest, Cultivated plant, Human-primate conflict, Feeding ecology.

Citation: Najmuddin MF, Haris H, Norazlimi N, Ruslin F, Matsuda I, Md-Zain BM, Abdul-Latiff MAB. 2021. Dietary habits of free-ranging banded langur (Presbytis femoralis) in a secondary-human modified forest in Johor, Malaysia. Zool Stud 60:67. doi:10.6620/ZS.2021.60-67.