Ranging Pattern in Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata)

Abstract

Patterns of ranging behavior of a species depend on distribution and abundance of different resources including food resources and roosting trees, further also depend on group size, intergroup encounters, phenology and movements of the group on previous days, season variability and rainfall. If a species is exposed to humans and live commensal with humans, then the degree of provisioning influences their ecology which includes activity and ranging pattern of that species. To understand this phenomenon, I selected Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata) as a model organism to understand the ranging pattern where there are developmental activities and alteration to their habitat. For the study, four groups of bonnet macaque were selected from Chamundi Hills, Mysore, Karnataka. I have collected 12:00 hrs of observations for 106 days over 7 nonconsecutive months (June 2017- February 2018) of study. The data was collected on Daily path length (DPL), activity budget and feeding ecology of these groups. The DPL was significantly varied between the study groups. The groups were found to spend more time in resting activity and very small time in movement activity. The feeding activity did not differ significantly between study groups. The study groups feed >40% on a natural resource. This result concludes the amount of provision food is a prime mover of ranging pattern in primates. The results are also important to develop the conservation strategies for conservation of bonnet macaque and any other commensal species living in habitat fragmented area