Preference and Seasonality of Allogrooming Posture and Body Site of Wild White-Headed Black Langurs (Trachypithecus leucocephalus) in Guangxi, China: Functional Implications
Preference and Seasonality of Allogrooming Posture and Body Site of Wild White-Headed Black Langurs (Trachypithecus leucocephalus) in Guangxi, China: Functional Implications
Qiu-Cheng Zhao1,2, Xin-Ling Gan1,2, Zhou-Quan Wei1,2, Zhong-Hao Huang1,2* and You-Bang Li1,2*
ABSTRACT
Allogrooming behavior is ubiquitous among nonhuman primates and considered to be highly preferences regarding to allogrooming postures and body sites. In order to investigate the allogrooming preference and seasonality of the white-headed black langurs (Trachypithecus leucocephalus), we studied the allogrooming posture and body site of the animal via focal animal sampling and continuous recording in the Chongzuo White-Headed Langur National Nature Reserve from February 2016 to January 2017. Results showed that totally proportions of non-eye contact and eye contact allogrooming postures of the animals accounted for 47.86% and 52.14%, respectively. The most frequently used allogrooming posture in the dry season was sprawl (32.73%), and that of in the rainy season was sit side (33.56%). There were significant differences among allogrooming postures throughout the year (p < 0.001). Proportion of allogrooming in inaccessible area in the dry season was higher than in the rainy season. The grooming preference index was greater than 0 in the dry season and less than 0 in the rainy season. The proportion of difficult to reach area was opposite and there was a significant difference between dry season and rainy season (p = 0.04), and both grooming preference index was greater than 0. The grooming preference index of easy to reach area was less than 0 in dry season and rainy season. Animals were selective in allogrooming sites, the anogenital area had the largest grooming preference index in both dry and rainy seasons. The allogrooming of white-headed black langur appeared to be consistent with the social function hypothesis. In addition, allogrooming was in line with the hygiene function hypothesis during dry season, but not in rainy season. The reason may be associated with variation of food supply between the two seasons. It is necessary to further study before generalizing the function of allogrooming of the langur.
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