Salt-lick use by mammals in tropical rainforests of Peninsula Malaysia

概要

1.1 Importance of salt-licks in conservation
In forest ecosystems including tropical rainforests, there are specific sites
which are known to local people as gathering places for animals. Many terrestrial
herbivores and even some predominantly arboreal primates have been recorded eating
soil and/or drinking seeping water at these sites (Corlett 2009). These sites are called
“salt licks” (Molina et al. 2014), “mineral licks” (Moe 1993), “natural licks”
(Matsubayashi et al. 2007a), or “mineral spring” (Bechtold 1996), etc. because it is
assumed that these sites can provide animals minerals, especially sodium, in many cases
(described in detail in Chapter 1.2). I, hereafter, refer to the sites where animals show
eating soil or drinking seeping water as “salt-licks”.
Salt-licks may relieve mammals, especially in rainforest habitats, from
physiological stress and increase their fitness, and it may increase the carrying capacity
of areas with salt-licks compared to areas where they are absent (Klaus et al. 1998). ...

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