Birth dynamics in Hanuman langurs,Presbytis entellus of Jodhpur,India

Ten years data on birth peak, birth rate and interbiith interval inPresbytis entellus of Jodhpur have been presented. Although Hangman langur females breed round the year, there is some concentration of births during January–March while fewer births occur during October–December. It seems that provisioning and crop raiding together may provide better feeding opportunities to breed year round. However, it remains unclear whether environmental factors allow langur females to deliver more infants during January–March. During 1984–86 the birth rate was uniform for the whole population (0.63). While there was a variation within the troops from year to year, data suggest that resident male replacements do alter birth rate. It goes down when resident males are replaced frequently. The interbirth interval ranges between 7.0 and 76.5 months (average, 16.88 months;n = 112). Abortions and still-births reduced the interbirlh interval to 7.1 months (range 7.1-21.1; average, 11.4 months;n= 8) compared to the normal inlerbirth interval following infant survive its first 4.1 months of life (range 10.7-76.5 months; average, 17.28 months;n = 86). However, infant loss under the age of 4.1 months did not reduce the interbirth interval except in two cases (range 7.0-51.8 months; average, 17.27 months;n = 18). Maternal rejection or weaning begins at about 8 months of age and lasts until infants are 12 months old. In this population, the probability of twin births was worked out to be 0.79 per 100 births.