Golden Langur Trachypithecusgeei (Khajuria, 1956) feeding on Cryptocoryne retrospiralis (Roxb.) Kunth (Family: Araceae): a rare
feeding observation in Chirang Reserve Forest, Assam,
India
Raju Das ¹,Hilloljyoti Singha 2,Hemanta Kumar Sahu 3& Kushal Choudhury ⁴
1 Nature’s Foster, P.O. Box No. 41, Shastri Road, Bongaigaon, Assam
783380, India
² Centre for Biodiversity &
Natural Resources Conservation, Department of Ecology &
Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, Assam 788011, India
1,³,4 P.G. Departments of
Zoology, North Orissa University, Sri Ramchandra Vihar, Takatpur, Baripada, Odisha 757003, India
⁴ Department of Zoology, Science College, Kokrajhar,
Assam, India
1 dasraju73@gmail.com, 2 hilloljyoti.singha@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 3 hks_nou@yahoo.com, 4 kushal.c8@gmail.com
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3535.5013-5 | ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:20AFFD4E-2A7A-4E5B-A824-A68B28666D64
Editor: Mewa Singh, Mysore University, Mysuru, India. Date
of publication: 26 November 2013 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms # o3535 | Received 20 February 2013 | Final received 28
August 2013 | Finally accepted 14 October 2013
Citation: Das, R., H. Singha,
H.K. Sahu & K. Choudhury (2013). Golden Langur Trachypithecus geei (Khajuria, 1956) feeding
on Cryptocoryne retrospiralis(Roxb.) Kunth (Family: Araceae): a rare feeding observation in ChirangReserve Forest, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(15): 5013–5015; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3535.5013-5
Copyright: © Das 2013. Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium,
reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and
the source of publication.
Funding: The
first author is grateful to Dr. Nowel Rowe, Primate
Conservation Inc., USA, for financial grants.
Competing Interest: None.
Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the Department of
Forests and Tourism, Bodoland Territorial Council for
granting the permission and logistic support. Sincere thanks are also due to Dr. Awadhesh Kumar, Department of
Forestry, NERIST (Deemed University), ArunachalPradesh, India for providing literature. The first author is grateful to Dr. R.H. Horwich, CC, USA for constant advice and support.
Abbreviations: CITES - Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; IUCN - International Union for
Conservation of Nature; RF - Reserve Forest.
The Golden Langur Trachypithecus geei Khajuria, 1956 is one of the rarestprimates of South Asia. Because of
its restricted distribution and numbers, it is listed under Schedule I of the
Wildlife (Protection) Act of India (1972), assessed as Endangered on the IUCN
Red List (Das et al. 2008), and under Appendix I of CITES. It is a leaf-eating, arboreal,
canopy-dwelling langur endemic to India and
Bhutan. It is found only in a small
pocket of forests of north-western Assam, India and
south-central Bhutan at the Indo-Bhutan border. It is distributed in India between the
rivers Manas in the east, Sankoshin the west and Brahmaputra in the south.
A rare feeding behaviourof Golden Langur was observed in ChirangReserve Forest (26.300-–26.520N & 90.150–90.250E),
Assam, during 2010 on four occasions; two in October and two in December. The Chirang Reserve
Forest is bounded on the west by the SaralbhangaRiver, on the north by the international boundary with Bhutan, on the east by
the river Bhur, and on the south it
is bounded at present by National Highway 31. The ChirangReserve Forest is in the buffer area of the ManasBiosphere Reserve and Ripu-Chirang Elephant Reserve.
We observed a group of Golden Langurs feeding on Cryptocoryne retrospiralis (family: Araceae)
in Samukha River. The group was composed of a total of 10
individuals consisting of two adult males, five adult females, two infants and
one juvenile. The langurs would go down to the river, get a portion of the
plant, and eat it as they moved on. The feeding bout lasted for two to three minutes, extending up to five
minutes. On all these four
occasions, langurs were found actively seeking the
plant. On exposed stream beds, they would sit digging the plant until a piece
was chosen and eaten. Movement to
the site was direct, with clear intent. In eight cases, some bits of the plant
that had been picked up were tasted, smelled and subsequently rejected. They fed on the stalks, leaves and
flowers of the plant. In one instance a male went down to the water to feed on
the whole plant (Image 1a). They
purposefully fed on this plant species among other aquatic macrophytes. Adult males were the most frequent users
of the plant.
Cryptocoryne retrospiralis known
as water trumpet, a submerged herb, is native to India, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand. It is commonly found all over India as a submerged herb (Gupta
2011). The plant is perennial,
occurs mostly in streams and rivers with not too rapidly flowing water, and in
lowland forest, where it often forms turf-like communities (Image 1b). The rhizomes of the plant grow up to
1.5cm thick and knotty, with stolons, bearing long,
thick, contractile roots, leaves linear to narrowly oblong, narrowly
cartilaginous, sometimes minutely toothed near base. Spathe is pale
green on the outside, with white spotted purple inside (Image 1c) (Noltie 1994). Flowering of the plants has been observed from November until
March. However, this plant species
is rare in Chirang Reserve Forest and is localized
only in this part of the reserve forest. The water at the locality had a pH of 5–5.4.
Das (2012) reported 91 plant species as
food species for Golden Langur comprising both trees
and climbers in Chirang RF. Floristic composition of the habitat
appears to determine the spectrum of food plant species in their diet. The proportion of foliage in the overall
diet of Golden Langur is 70% (Biswaset al. 1996). Consumption of young
leaves probably meets the requirement of essential nutrients and protein for langurs because they contain a high percentage of crude
protein (Struhsaker 1975; Krishnamani1994; Kumar & Solanki 2004). Golden Langursget about 65% of their diet from leaves, 25% from fruits, and 10% from flowers
(Das 2012). The selectivity and
preferences of primates for specific plant species are viewed as strategies for
dealing with the nutrient and secondary compound content variation in these
foods (Das 2012). However, it is
not clear why the Golden Langur select Cryptocoryne retrospiralis to feed on among other aquatic plant species. The chemical analyses have demonstrated
that plant parts of Cryptocoryne sp. contain carbohydrates, glycosides and alkaloids, and very
specifically contain oxofattyacid esters like ethyl 14-oxotetracosonoate and
15-oxocicosanyl 14-oxoheptadecanoate together with hentriacontane(Rastoji & Mehrotra1980). There are also reports of consumption of Cryptocorynespecies as greens by the tribes in the Western Ghats of India (Narayanan &
Kumar 2007). Ethnobotanically this plant is used
locally in medicine (Cook 1996). The fresh tuber paste is applied twice a day
for relief from boils and burns (Kamble et al. 2010);
used as antiperiodic, febrifuge, tonic, beneficial in infantile vomiting, cough
and for abdominal troubles (Chatterjee & Prakashi 2001). Therefore, further investigation is needed regarding
the consumption of Cryptocoryne retrospiralis by the Golden Langur.
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