Abstract:
Dietary analysis in wildlife is fundamental for understanding their flexible response to seasonal changes and developing effective conservation management measures. Taihangshan macaque (Macaca mulatta tcheliensis) is the northernmost population of rhesus macaque, currently only distributed in the southern Mt. Taihangshan area. This area belongs to a semi-arid region resulting in limited plant food availability for Taihangshan macaques, with seasonal variation. Herein, we used a chloroplast trnL DNA metabarcoding approach to identify the plant diet diversity and composition from 100 fecal samples of Taihangshan macaque in four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) from 2020 to 2021. The results revealed that (1) a total of 48 distinct families, 88 genera, and 52 species within the 105 food items that were consumed by Taihangshan macaques throughout the year; (2) the diversity of food items exhibited significant differences across the four seasons; (3) Rosaceae, Rhamnaceae, Fagaceae, and Poaceae are the preferential food items for Taihangshan macaques and have different relative abundances, fluctuating with seasonal variation. DNA metabarcoding can expand our understanding of the repertoire of food items consumed by Taihangshan macaques by detecting some consumed food items in this population that were not yet discovered using traditional methods. Therefore, the integrative results from traditional methods and DNA metabarcoding can provide a fundamental understanding of dietary composition to guide the conservation management of Taihangshan macaques.
摘要:
野生动物的饮食分析对于了解其对季节变化的灵活反应和制定有效的保护管理措施至关重要。太行山猕猴(Macacamulattatcheliensis)是恒河猴的最北端种群,目前仅分布在Mt.太行山地区。该地区属于半干旱地区,导致太行山猕猴的植物食物供应有限,随季节变化。在这里,我们使用叶绿体trnLDNAmetabarcoding方法从四个季节的100个太行山猕猴粪便样本中鉴定植物的饮食多样性和组成(春季,夏天,秋天,和冬季)从2020年到2021年。结果显示:(1)共有48个不同的家庭,88属,和泰行山猕猴全年食用的105种食物中的52种;(2)食物的多样性在四个季节中表现出显著差异;(3)玫瑰科,鼠李子科,菊科,和禾本科是太行山猕猴的优先食品,具有不同的相对丰度,随季节变化而波动。DNA元编码可以通过检测该种群中尚未使用传统方法发现的某些食用食品来扩大我们对太行山猕猴食用食品的理解。因此,传统方法和DNA元转录的综合结果可以为太行山猕猴的饮食组成提供基本的理解,以指导太行山猕猴的保护管理。