Anthropogenic impact on Rhesus Macaque (Macaca Mulatta Zimmermann, 1780) behavior in Pashupatinath temple area, Nepal

Abstract

Rhesus macaques are highly commensal non-human primates and they display a close relationship with humans. There is a controversy regarding the human-macaque interactions in the wild and conflict is created due to these interactions. However, the effect of human disturbance in the behavior of the rhesus macaques are understudied. This study is mainly focused on the effect of human disturbance on feeding and grooming behavior of rhesus macaques in Pashupatinath Temple area, Kathmandu. Two groups of macaques from differential disturbance area were taken. Focal animal sampling was performed to note the behavior of the macaques, whereas instantaneous scan sampling was used for the collection of number of people at that exact time. Six focal animals from each group were observed. There was no difference (t= 0.007, P= 0.497) between the time spent in overall activity by two groups regardless of the human presence. Despite the overall activities of males and females being insignificant in high (t= -0.109, P= 0.457) and low (t= -0.038, P= 0.485) disturbance area, there was a noticeable difference in the individual activities. In both the study groups, males rested more than females; whereas females groomed more than males. Assessing the human disturbance effect in grooming activities suggested negative association in overall males and females. In the low disturbance area, the effect on grooming were insignificant for both the sexes (males and females) unlike the macaques in high disturbance area showing negative association of human presence with grooming. Similarly, overall macaques from both high and low disturbance area did not show any effect of human disturbance in feeding whereas the females from both groups showed positive effect of human disturbance on feeding. However, non-significant difference was observed in the feeding of individual sexes from both high and low disturbance area. In conclusion, food provisioning of the people, teasing, scaring off macaques, and throwing stones towards them might be the cause for the reduced grooming time in macaques. However, in presence of humans they get to feed on provisioned food due to which the time spent on feeding might have increased. The reason for insignificant difference between the groups could be due to habituation of the macaques in the anthropogenic environments.