Understanding dietary diversity is a fundamental task in the study of stump-tailed macaque, Macaca arctoides in its natural habitat. However, direct feeding observation and morphological identification using fecal samples are not effective and nearly impossible to obtain in natural habitats because this species is sensitive to human presence. As ecological methods are challenging and time-consuming, DNA metabarcoding offers a more powerful assessment of the diet. We used a chloroplast tRNL DNA metabarcoding approach to identify the diversity of plants consumed by free-ranging M. arctoides in the Malaysia–Thailand border region located in Perlis State Park, Peninsular Malaysia. DNA was extracted from three fecal samples, and chloroplast tRNL DNA was amplified and sequenced using the Illumina MiniSeq platform. Sequences were analyzed using the CLC Genomic Workbench software. A total of 145 plant species from 46 families were successfully identified as being consumed by M. arctoides. The most abundant species were yellow saraca, Saraca thaipingensis (11.70%), common fig, Ficus carica (9.33%), aramata, Clathrotropis brachypetala (5.90%), sea fig, Ficus superba (5.44%), and envireira, Malmea dielsiana (1.70%). However, Clathrotropis and Malmea are not considered Malaysian trees because of limited data available from Malaysian plant DNA. Our study is the first to identify plant taxa up to the species level consumed by stump-tailed macaques based on a DNA metabarcoding approach. This result provides an important understanding on diet of wild M. arctoides that only reside in Perlis State Park, Malaysia.

Abdul-Manan MN, Mohd-Ridwan AR, Aifat NR, Osman NA, Abdul-Latiff MA, Dharmalingam S, Md-Zain BM. 2020. Short Communication: Effectiveness of nuclear gene in species and subspecies determination of captive orangutans. Biodiversitas 21: 3665-3669. Genetic identification of captive orangutans is of paramount importance in providing a correct identity that is essential for captive management. Thus, the utility of nuclear DNA sequences was tested in this study to identify the genetic identity of captive orangutans at Bukit Merah Orang Utan Island. Out of 24 DNA samples that were successfully extracted, only 10 orangutan samples were successfully sequenced for the von Willebrand factor (vWF) gene. From the results, this gene was able to separate the genus Pongo at the species level. Distance and character analyses indicated that a clear separation between P. pygmaeus and P. abelii at the species level. However, the degree of separation at species level was indicated in tree topology with moderate bootstrap values. At the subspecies level of P. pygmaeus, this gene was unable to show a clear separation between three Bornean subspecies. All the subspecies were formed clade together with each other. The vMF gene is a good nuclear gene for the study of phylogenetic relationships of orangutans in captivity at the species level, but the genetic identification at subspecies level in the genus level remains unclear. We suggest that future studies should involve multiple independent nuclear markers to increase the probability of getting reliable results.