Nutrient Balancing by Captive Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana)

An organism’s fitness is tied closely to its ability to obtain food. However, many foods are nutritionally suboptimal on their own, forcing an individual to develop a feeding strategy that actively manages both type and amount of food consumed. Animals in captivity are additionally limited to human provisioned diets, which may be nutritionally inadequate and negatively affect behavior and health. We studied the nutritional intake of captive golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) at two locations in China (132 days of continuous, sunrise to sunset focal samples of 7 individuals at each site) and used the Geometric Framework for nutrition to identify their feeding strategy and evaluate diet variation across sites, seasons, and age–sex classes. Captive golden snub-nosed monkeys had a mean nutrient intake of 75% carbohydrates (15% neutral detergent fiber, 60% total nonstructural carbohydrates), 12% fat, and 13% protein (by energy) that differed by location and season owing to differences in the type and amount of food items offered and consumed. Intake at one location differed from that of wild golden snub-nosed monkeys, suggesting that the captive diet was inadequate. These results highlight the importance of developing nutritionally adequate diets for captive animals based on an understanding of their nutritional requirements.