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Arm-Swinging in the Red-Shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus): Implications of Body Mass

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Abstract

Across the primates, larger body mass often necessitates below-branch locomotion (such as arm-swinging or brachiation). While colobines are typically considered arboreal quadrupeds, Pygathrix exhibits a high degree of arm-swinging behavior in captivity (ca. 50% of locomotion time). However, little is known about their behavior in the wild. We examined two questions about the locomotion of Pygathrix nemaeus in the wild: 1) What is the proportion of arm-swinging in the locomotor repertoire? 2) Given the difference in sizes between the sexes and age categories in this species, do adult males, adult females, subadults, and juveniles differ in arm-swinging frequency? Based on the hypothesis that increased body mass is typically associated with below-branch locomotion, we predict adult males will arm-swing the most, followed by adult females with a ventral infant, adult females without an infant, subadults, and then juveniles. We recorded data between November 2016 and April 2017 in Son Tra Nature Reserve, Da Nang, Vietnam. This time frame encompasses the wet and dry seasons. We video-recorded P. nemaeus between dawn and dusk, 5 days a week, and recorded behavioral data from the footage. We found that juveniles used arm-swinging the most (34.3%), followed by subadults (21.7%), adult females (17.6%), adult females carrying infants (15.5%), and then adult males (9.8%). These results do not support the hypothesis that larger bodied individuals engage more in below-branch locomotion. It is not uncommon for colobine juveniles to show higher proportions of arm-swinging than adults, but more research is needed to understand the relatively high proportions of arm-swinging in adult P. nemaeus.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people for their support toward the success of this project: Hoang Minh Duc, Vu Ngoc Thanh, Nguyen Van Thang, and James D. Pampush. We would like to thank the reviewers and editor for providing feedback and significantly improving our manuscript. We also thank the following agencies: the Southern Institute of Ecology, GreenViet Conservation Center, and the Da Nang Forest Protection Department. We thank the following funding agencies for supporting this project: Primate Conservation Inc. and the Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Katie E. Bailey

  2. Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Jeffrey W. Winking & David L. Carlson

  3. Southern Institute of Ecology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Tran Van Bang

  4. GreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Centre, Da Nang, Vietnam

    Ha Thang Long

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  1. Katie E. Bailey
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Contributions

KEB formulated the idea and conducted the fieldwork. JWW and DLC analyzed the data. TVB and HTL facilitated the fieldwork and data collection. KEB and JWW wrote the manuscript, and the other authors provided editorial advice.

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Correspondence to Katie E. Bailey.

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Handling Editor: Joanna M. Setchell.

Badge earned for open practices: Open Data. Experiment materials and data are available in the repository at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-020-00163-6.

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Bailey, K.E., Winking, J.W., Carlson, D.L. et al. Arm-Swinging in the Red-Shanked Douc (Pygathrix nemaeus): Implications of Body Mass. Int J Primatol 41, 583–595 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-020-00163-6

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