Grazing and Browsing by Large Herbivores in South and Southeast Asia

Understanding a species’ foraging habits and preferences is fundamental to understanding its overall ecology and essential for its management and conservation. In general, large herbivores are classified as either grazers, browsers , or mixed feeders , and a species’ diet preference is related to its body mass and digestive trait syndrome. Here, we analyze feeding strategies of large herbivores in South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) as related to their body mass and digestive trait syndromes. Overall, our results are similar to patterns observed on other continents. The majority of large herbivore species in SSEA are mixed feeders. Browsers and frugivores dominate the smallest body mass classes, while bulk feeders , predominantly grazers, dominate the largest body mass classes. There is an absence of hindgut fermenters in the lower body mass classes, and an absence of ruminants in the megaherbivore class (>1000 kg). Cervids in SSEA do not get as large as Bovids, and in both Cervids and Bovids the greatest number of species are found in the smaller body mass classes. Although large herbivores in SSEA occur across a wide range of different habitat types, there are discernible habitat associations with different groups of species. While this chapter sheds light on this important facet of large herbivore ecology in the region, there remains an acute lack of data on the foraging ecology of the majority of species in SSEA.