Abstract
Resource partitioning reduces the competition between different species within the same habitat, promoting their coexistence. To understand how such species co-adapt to reduce conflicts, we examined the behavior of two primates, Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis) and rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), from April 2017 to March 2018 in Sivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP), Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. We performed 1580 and 1261 scan sessions on wild multi-male/multi-female groups of Assamese and rhesus macaques, respectively, at 15-min sampling intervals. Assamese macaques consumed fewer plant species (38 species) than rhesus macaques (88 species). 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 consumed by the two species differed—more leaves, fruits and cones were used by Assamese macaques than rhesus macaques, whereas more flowers, seeds, and pods were consumed by rhesus macaques than Assamese macaques. Assamese macaques had a smaller home range (0.55 km2) than rhesus macaques (4.23 km2), and Assamese macaques had a shorter daily moving distance (1.6 km) than rhesus macaques (4.0 km). Although feeding time did not differ between the two macaque species, less time was devoted to social activities by Assamese macaques (16.0%) than by rhesus macaques (33.7%). Assamese macaques were generally arboreal, with 94.0% of their activities in trees, whereas rhesus macaques were largely terrestrial, with 58.5% of their activities on the ground. These differences in food selection, home-range size, ranging and activity patterns, and habitat use suggest that Assamese and rhesus macaques reduce resource competition through resource partitioning to coexist in a landscape matrix.
Highlights
Many studies of sympatric and non-sympatric primates have indicated that diet and space are factors affecting competition and conflict
This study was conducted from April 2017 to March 2018 at Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP) (27.80° N, 85.39° E), which has an area of 159 km2, with the highest elevation at 2732 m
Assamese macaques spent the greatest proportion of their diurnal time feeding and engaging in social behavior in autumn (35.5 and 17.4%), resting in spring (30.1%), and moving in winter (34.7%), while rhesus macaques spent the greatest proportion of their diurnal time feeding and resting in spring (33.3 and 22.9%), moving in summer (20.0%), and engaging in social activities in winter (35.9%)
Summary
Many studies of sympatric and non-sympatric primates have indicated that diet and space are factors affecting competition and conflict. Several studies on primate populations have shown that primates adopt various strategies for coexistence—for example, Snodderly et al (2019) reported that four sympatric species, Ateles belzebuth, Lagothrix lagotricha poeppigii, Plecturocebus discolor, and Pithecia aequatorialis, adopted temporal niche partitioning by feeding at different diurnal periods. Primates (2020) 61:603–621 exclusive core areas in wild non-territorial groups to voluntarily avoid neighbors (Seiler et al 2017). A sympatric community, consisting of Macaca leonina, Macaca mulatta, Trachypithecus pileatus, and Hylobates hoolock, avoided conflict via different resource partitioning mechanisms such as food preference and selective utilization of forest strata, ranging patterns, and activity budgets (Feeroz 2011). Selection of different strategy may be contextual, depending on various factors such as group size, presence of predators, and the area of potential habitat. Behavioral adaptation must play an important role in closely related sympatric species to encroach different niches
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