Behavioural and feeding ecology of a small-bodied folivorous primate (Lepilemur leucopus) in Southern Madagascar

人们不断地选择哪些食物包括在他们的饮食。这些选择反过来影响他们的营养状况，从而最终影响他们的健康。为了测试一组最佳饮食策略的预测，我们的目标是调查如何食叶性饮食，食物资源的季节变化，性别特异性生殖成本和食物竞争影响觅食策略，食物选择和社会系统的一个小身体孤独觅食灵长类动物。活动模式，喂养生态和测距行为的数据将收集在人口的白足狐猴（Lepilemur leucopus）跨季节。此外，马达加斯加南部的亚沙漠多刺森林的生境结构和物候将被确定。除了量化资源可用性外，还将进行营养分析，以确定运动狐猴的食物质量和食物选择。将确定雄性和雌性家域的大小和重叠，并记录社会单位之间和内部的所有社会互动。评价季节性差异的食物分布，质量和数量（外在因素），以及性别差异的食物选择，由于不同的生殖投资（内在因素）将进一步我们了解如何改变生理和营养需求影响的食叶动物的饮食选择。

Individuals constantly make choices about which foods to include in their diet. These choices in turn influence their nutritional state and, hence, ultimately their fitness. In order to test a set of predictions about optimal dietary strategies, we aim to investigate how a folivorous diet, seasonal variation of food resources, sex-specific reproductive costs and food competition influence foraging strategies, food choices and the social system of a small-bodied solitarily foraging primate. Data on activity patterns, feeding ecology and ranging behaviour will be collected in a population of the white-footed sportive lemur (Lepilemur leucopus) across seasons. Furthermore, habitat structure and phenology of the subdesert spiny forest of southern Madagascar will be determined. In addition to a quantification of resource availability, nutritional analyses will be conducted to determine sportive lemurs’ food quality and food choice. The size and overlap of males’ and females’ home ranges will be determined and all social interactions between and within social units will be recorded. The evaluation of seasonal differences in food distribution, quality and quantity (extrinsic factors) as well as sex differences in food selection due to differing reproductive investment (intrinsic factors) will further our understanding of how changing physiological and nutritional needs influence dietary choices of folivores.