Mantled Guereza - Ecology - Diet and Predation

Diet and Predation

Despite its reputation as an exclusive leaf-eater, the guereza is not an obligate folivore. While it mainly eats leaves and fruit, its diet is quite variable. It may eat bark, wood, seeds, flowers, petioles, lianas, aquatic-plants, arthropods, soil and even concrete from buildings. The amount of each food item in their diet varies by area and time of year. Nutritional factors like protein, tannins, and sodium levels in leaves influence the food choices of guerezas. They may even intermittently travel longer distances just to access plants with higher levels of nutrition. Leaves usually make up over half of their diet but fruits are occasionally eaten more. When foraging for leaves, guerezas prefer young ones over old. With fleshy fruits, guerezas prefer to eat them unripe, which may serve to reduce competition with primates that eat ripe fruits. The guereza consumes a number of species but only several make up most of its diet at a specific site. Like all colobi, guerezas are able to digest leaves and other plant fibers with a large, multi-chambered stomach that contains bacteria in certain areas. Like most colobines, guerezas prefer foods with high fiber content that can be easily extracted with their unique stomachs. The guereza is mostly preyed on by the crowned hawk-eagle. Other birds of prey that prey on it include the Verreaux's eagle. The common chimpanzee is known to hunt the guereza. The leopard is another possible predator.