PhD Theses (SACON)
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Item Population Status and Resource Utilization of Nicobar long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis umbrosus) in Nicobar Islands, India(SACON, 2021) Avdhoot, Velnkar D; Kumara, H NLong-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is one of the most widely distributed primates in east Asian countries. The subspecies of long-tailed macaque in India is M. f. umbrosus, which is endemic to three Nicobar Islands viz. Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar, Katchal. This study arose from the need to create baseline information for the isolated populations of the subspecies. I conducted a study on the ranging pattern, feeding habits, and activity budget of M. fumbrosus for my thesis. For population status and social organization the existing trails used in earlier studies were surveyed. Instantaneous scan sampling was followed for the data collection on activity budgets and feeding ecology. Geo-coordinates of the group were recorded every 30 min while following the group to assess the movement pattern and plot its home-range. The group encounter rate per kilometre in Great Nicobar (0.30) was significantly lower than in Katchal (0.48) with no difference between Little Nicobar (0.35) and the other two islands. The mean group size between Great Nicobar (39.83±17.47, N=6) and Katchal (43.50±26.15, N= 4) did not vary significantly. The population increased at an intrinsic rate (r) of 0.12, 0.14 and 0.17 in Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal from 2006 to 2014. Throughout the day Resting was the most observed activity and foraging and scouting were the least observed activities. Activities feeding, social and movement occurred at similar proportion to each other through the day-time classes. Study group was observed to feed on 26 major food items of which 12 were introduced by humans and 14 were of native origin. Further seven extractive foraging and tool use behaviors were observed which include food extraction, foraging, food preparation and teeth flossing. females significantly fed on less coconuts compared to males despite showing equal proficiency in manipulation of all coconut types. ANOSIM performed between ages revealed that adults and immature were significantly dissimilar in their behavioral repertoire in processing coconuts. Markov chains for dry, mature and tender coconuts by adult and immature showed differences in behavioural transitions. A total of 830 group locations were collected during the study period, spread over in 66 grid cells of which 6 grids were used most frequently.