| Popis: |
Infant-bearing, Coquerel’s sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) undergo gestation during a lean seasonal climate with weaning occurring during the abundant season. During this time, nutrient demand increases due to placental transport to the fetus and to the infant postpartum by milk. Females respond to this increased demand by ingesting larger food quantities, reducing expenditure, and/or using their nutrient stores. We collected foods (N=75) exploited by lactating females (N=10) in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar to examine the nutritional landscape within which sifakas forage. We measured food nitrogen, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), gross energy (GE) and ash to estimate crude protein (CP), available protein (AP), fiber, mineral content and metabolizable energy (ME). Two significant PCA (principal component analysis) axes corresponded to high protein and high fiber-low ME explaining 91.6% of the variance. Cluster 1 is categorized by foods that contained higher AP and cluster 2 is categorized by higher fiber foods. P. coquereli rely on a diverse range of foods inclusive of those with high AP and ME, but also high fiber foods with low ME. We hypothesize that the high fiber, low ME foods may be important for maintaining the gut microbiome. |
