Diet, food availability, and climatic factors drive ranging behavior in white-headed langurs in the limestone forests of Guangxi, southwest China.

Changes in abiotic and biotic factors can affect the efficiency of biological systems in animals, forcing them to adjust their behaviors in response to daily and seasonal variations. From September 2016 to August 2017, we collected ranging behavior data on four groups of white-headed langurs ( Trachypithecus leucocephalus) in the Guangxi Chongzuo White-Headed Langur National Nature Reserve, Guangxi, southwest China. We simultaneously analyzed how multiple ecological factors affect langur ranging behavior, which should facilitate our understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying their adaptation to limestone habitats. Results showed that langur ranging behavior was significantly affected by diet composition, food availability, and climatic factors. Specifically, moving time and daily path length increased with the increase in dietary diversity. Furthermore, moving time and daily path length were positively associated with the availability of fruit and relative humidity of the forest, and moderately associated with temperature and relative humidity of bare rock. Our study demonstrated that langurs maintain stable moving and feeding times and exhibit a short daily travel distance, likely adopting an energy-conserving behavioral strategy in response to food shortages and high temperatures in the fragmented karst forest. These results highlight the importance of food availability and temperature in shaping the ranging behavior of these karst-dwelling primates.