Activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus (<i>Procolobus preussi</i>) in Korup National Park, South-West region, Cameroon

Abstract

Preuss’s red colobus is critically endangered and endemic to Cameroon and Nigeria. It is one of the least studied red colobus species and therefore further knowledge about the species is crucial for conservation work. Activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus was carried in the southern part of Korup National Park, South West region of Cameroon for 18 months and was aimed at contributing to the understanding of the species general behavioural pattern for conservation. Time interval scan sampling method was used for this study. Two thousand three hundred and three individual observations were recorded from 273 group scans for 462 hours. Results revealed general activity time budget for the species, activity related to seasonality,  period of the day and age class. In general, this species spent 1: 1: 1: 4: 2 resting, feeding, moving, others and socializing respectively. In wet season they spent more time in all the activities 1: 1: 1: 1: 4 resting, moving, feeding, other and socializing respectively more than in the dry season. Their activity budget within a day revealed the following results: feeding 9: 7: 6 afternoon, morning, mid-day respectively, moving 1: 1: 4 mid-day, morning, afternoon respectively, resting 1:1:2 mornings, mid-day and afternoon respectively, socializing 4: 1:0:2 mornings, mid-day, afternoon respectively and other 1: 1: 3 morning, mid-day, afternoon respectively. Results on the activity budget of age class indicate that adults spent more time feeding (16.31%), resting (25.72%), moving (13.09) than juveniles and infants but infants spent more time socializing (5.55%) than adults (1.58%) and juveniles (00%). This study therefore gives a basic clue of activity budget of Preuss’s red colobus, specific for Korup National Park, experiencing human threat. This information can play an important part for the proper management and conservation of this species.

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Keywords: Behavioural patterns, red colobus, conservation, scan sampling, seasonality, time period