DIURINAL ACTIVITY PATTERNS AND FEEDING HABITS OF GRIVET MONKEY
(Chlorocebus aethiop aethiops) IN WONDO GENET COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AND
NATURAL RESOURCE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA
Abstract
The Grivet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiop aethiops) is an old-world primate
Monkey species distributed on the east of the White Nile in Sudan to
Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. The study on activity patterns and
feeding habits of Grivet Monkeys in and around Wondo Genet College of
Forestry and Natural Resource was carried out from February 2021 to
August 2022 during both the wet and dry season. Instantaneous scan
sampling method was used at 15-min intervals for up to 10 minutes
duration. During each scan, individuals were recorded as performing one
of the following activities: feeding, moving, resting, grooming,
playing, and others. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics
such as One-way ANOVA, Kruskal Wallis test, and Mann-Whitney U-test were
used to analyze data.On average, the greatest proportion of the activity
time budget of the grivet monkey was devoted to feeding (29.5±0.6%),
followed by resting (27±0.8%), moving (26±0.2%), grooming (9±0.2%),
playing (5.5±0.6%) and the least time spent on other social activities
(3±0.2%). They feed 42 food sources grouped into 41 plant species and
one insect. On average, the forb of leaf 32±3.2% comprised the highest
percent proportion of their diet, whereas, roots (0.3±0.2%) and insects
(0.5±0.4%) comprised the least. Psidium guava was the top preferred
plant species and Callistemon linearis was the least preferred plant
species by the grivet monkey. Due to the existence of low quality of
food in human dominated area, Grivet monkey most of their time spent on
feeding activity. Therefore, concerned body and regional governments
need to take action to stop deforestation of the natural forests and
sustainable management must be needed for the top preferred plant
species. Keywords/ Phrase: Activity, Behavior, Proximate analysis, Time
budget.