Macronutrient digestibility and faeces quality in captive black and white colobus (Colobus guereza) and captive spectacled leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus obscurus)

摘要

Digestibility experiments were carried out with colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza) and spectacled leaf monkeys (Trachypithecus obscurus) in an attempt to relate diet composition, apparent macro-nutrient digestibility and faeces quality. The spectacledleaf monkeys were fed diets with different amounts of crude fibre, NDF and ADF. Faeces produced by the colobus monkeys were considered as well shaped and generally solid. The spectacled leaf monkeys, which were fed diets with lower fibre content than thediet of the colobus monkeys, generally produced soft and shapeless faeces and sometimes even watery diarrhoea. An increase in the amount of crude fibre and cellulose in the diet of the spectacled leaf monkeys resulted in an improvement of the faeces quality. For the three diets and the two monkey species studied, it would appear that high intakes of crude fibre and cellulose correlate with high amounts of crude fibre plus carbohydrates (nitrogen-free extract) in the faeces. Apparent digestibility of crude fibre in the colobus and leaf monkeys was as high as 52-68% of the intake. This study indicates that a high intake of crude fibre, including cellulose may improve stool quality in spectacled leaf monkeys.