Comparative ecological and behavioral study of Macaca assamensis and M. mulatta in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, Nepal

Resource partitioning reduces resource competition between different species within the same habitat, promoting their coexistence. To understand how such species, co-adapt to reduce conflicts, we examined the behaviour of two primates, the Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis) and the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), from April 2017 to March 2018 in Sivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP), Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. We performed 1,580 and 1,261 scan sessions on wild, multi-male/multi-female groups of Assamese and rhesus macaques, respectively, at 15-minute sampling intervals. Assamese macaques had a narrower food selection range than rhesus macaques, with 38 and 88 plant species consumed by Assamese and rhesus macaques, respectively. Overlapping food sources between the macaque species resulted in a Pianka index of 0.5. Assamese macaques consumed more items of tree, climber, and vine species, whereas rhesus macaques fed on more shrub, herb, and grass species. The proportions of plant parts ...