Study of the impact of tourists and local visitors / feeders on free-ranging Hanuman langur population in and around Jodhpur, Rajasthan (India)

Abstract

The Jodhpur city of Rajasthan has many tourist places where Hanuman langurs habitually feed on the food given by the visitors to them. The interactions were studied between Hanuman langurs and the visitors in and around Jodhpur by means of interviewing the visitors and direct observations of the behaviour of Hanuman langurs and visitors. Most (82.2%) of the observed interactions involved the presence of food; only in 17.8% of the interactions we observed langurs threatening or chasing the visitors. Some differences, however, emerged between what the visitors reported in the interviews and what we observed. Most respondents (76.1%) reported in the interviews that hostile interactions were started by monkeys, whereas analysis of the direct interactions showed that 47.3% of such interactions were initiated by visitors and only 39.6% by Hanuman langurs. Moreover, 83.9% of the visitors affirm them to feed Hanuman langurs, while 70.2% of them report having seen other visitors feeding them. On the basis of the above results, it would be beneficial to establish an educational program, providing information about the behaviour of Hanuman langurs and the consequences that feeding them could have on their behaviour and on their interactions with visitors.