Dietary Preference and Feeding Patterns of the Urban Rhesus Macaque Macaca Mulatta (Mammalia: Primates: Cercopithecidae) in Asola-Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in India

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Journal of Threatened Taxa Building evidence for conservaton globally www.threatenedtaxa.org ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Article Dietary preference and feeding patterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta (Mammalia: Primates: Cercopithecidae) in Asola-Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in India

Ishita Ganguly & Netrapal Singh Chauhan

26 December 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 15 | Pages: 12907–12915 10.11609/jot.4347.10.15.12907-12915

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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2018 | 10(15): 12907–12915 Article Dietary preference and feeding patterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta (Mammalia: Primates:

Cercopithecidae) in Asola-Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary in India ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) Ishita Ganguly 1 & Netrapal Singh Chauhan 2 OPEN ACCESS 1,2 Amity Insttute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University Campus, Sector 125, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Noida, Utar Pradesh 201303, India 1 [email protected] (corresponding author), 2 [email protected]

Abstract: We studied the feeding paterns and discrete spato-temporal food habitsof16 groups of the urban Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulata following their relocaton in Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary near Delhi, India. We observed that the macaques fed on 31 plant species, with Prosopis julifora and P. cineraria appearing in most scans. We classifed the food consumed by the species into six main categories the species and recorded the average tme spent on each of these throughout the year. The maximum tme was spent on supplementary feeding provided by the forest department and the minimum on natural plant resources. There was a signifcant diference in the consumpton of diferent food categories from morning to evening but there were no signifcant seasonal variatons. This study showed that Rhesus Macaque adopted diferent foraging strategies based on the availability of resources in their new environment and that variety in food resources bufered seasonality in their diet. Informaton on their feeding paterns and food habits will help in developing management protocols for the primates in urban environments.

Keywords: Feeding ecology, Delhi NCR, management, opportunistc feeding, primates, relocaton, urban landscape.

DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4347.10.15.12907-12915

Editor: Mewa Singh, University of Mysore, Mysuru, India Date of publicaton: 26 December 2018 (online & print)

Manuscript details: Ms # 4347 | Received 20 June 2018 | Final received 04 December 2018 | Finally accepted 19 December 2018

Citaton: Ganguly, I & N.S. Chauhan (2018). Dietary preference and feeding paterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulata (Mammalia: Primates: Cerco- pithecidae) in Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(15): 12907–12915; htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.4347.10.15.12907-12915

Copyright: © Ganguly & Chauhan 2018. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this artcle in any medium, reproducton and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton.

Funding: This study was funded by World Wide Fund for Nature - Small Grant Programme (2016–2018), India.

Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.

Author Details: Ishita Ganguly, B.Sc (Hons.), MSc, MPhil in Zoology and presently pursuing doctoral degree in Wildlife Science from Amity Insttute of Forestry and Wildlife, Amity University Noida, India. I have been working on ecology of Rhesus Macaque and human-macaque confict in urban landscape since 2015. My project is funded by WWF Small grant programme (2016–2018). Currently, writng my thesis and also preparing for atending students conference (SSCS Cambridge, UK) 2019 in United Kingdom. Dr. N.P.S. Chauhan, MSc & PhD, Zoology from Delhi University, actvely involved in teaching, training and research in Delhi University colleges, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Wildlife Insttute of India, Dehradun and now in Amity University, Noida and presently serving as Director of Amity Insttute of Forestry and Wildlife. He is the main supervisor of many PhD students in Amity University.

Author Contributon: IG wrote the project, raised funding, completed feld research, worked on data analysis, writng manuscript and communicaton. NSC contributed in planning of research, writng the manuscript and revising.

Acknowledgements: We thank Mr. A.K. Shukla, Chief Wildlife Warden,Delhi Forest and Wildlife Department, for issuing the permit to work in the feld area and Mr. S.K. Muan Giete, Deputy Conservator of Forest, South Division, Delhi, for providing support for the smooth conduct of the feld research. We also thank Prof. Dr. Praful Singh and Ms. Pradipika Verma, Amity Insttute of GIS and Remote Sensing,for designing the maps though GIS sofware and data imaging and Dr. G.S. Rawat, Wildlife Insttute of India, for identfying the plant species specimens.

12907 Dietary preference and feeding paterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Ganguly & Chauhan

INTRODUCTION are ofen inﬂuenced by provisioning of food by humans. Urban macaques have also acquired behavioural Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulata is the most adaptatons in food-acquisiton techniques (Mangalam & common non-human primate in the forested and urban Singh 2013). Urban habitats, in contrast to natural ones, areas of Asia (Hasan et al. 2013). It is found throughout have a more direct infuence on primate behaviours India in its peninsular (Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, associated with compettve resource utlizatons and and Assam), northern (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal foraging techniques. Several anthropogenic barriers Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Utar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and and disturbances interfere with the feeding ecology of Gujarat) (Seth et al. 2001), and northeastern (Assam, primates in urban environments. Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh; (Molur et al. 2003) Although Rhesus Macaques were assessed as a regions. Informaton on the feeding ecology of a species Least Concern (LC) species by IUCN (2018), primates provides the detailed dietary specializaton necessary are threatened globally by human-wildlife negatve for its survival and is an important part of its natural life interactons, habitat loss and fragmentaton, and history (Harcourt et al. 2002). Flexibility in diet paterns several other anthropogenic factors (Strum 1994, 2001; plays a pivotal role in the survival of non-human primate Mitermeier & Konstant 1996, 1997; Kemf & Wilson species in urban and peri-urban ecosystems through 1997; Cowlishaw & Dunbar 2000; Peterson 2003; Hill resource sharing and competton and has evolutonary 2005). The Negatve interactons between humans implicatons in the long-term. Primates are known to and macaques due to food provisioning and other adopt several foraging strategies (Fleagle & Gilbert anthropogenic drivers possess major challenges for the 2006). Natural diet of forest Rhesus Macaques includes survival and persistence of the species. The need for fruits, seeds, inforescences, fowers, buds, leaves, translocaton of Rhesus Macaques and the consequences young shoots, twigs, barks, roots, and pith and resin of were due to its proliferaton in urban areas of India gymnosperms, angiosperms, and fungi (Fooden 2000). was suggested and studied earlier (Malik & Johnson Macaques are also known to consume animal food 1991, 1994; Southwick et al. 1998). Translocaton or items that such as insects, spiders, worms, termites, relocaton is a widely used conservaton tool but it is grasshoppers, lizards, ants, beetles, molluscs, crayfsh, known to induce stress, as evident in the higher level shellfsh, honeycombs, crabs, and bird eggs (Mandal of stress hormones in females of the species during the 1964; Lindburg 1971; Malik 1983). In marine coastal translocaton process (Aguilar-Cucurachi et al. 2010). areas, the species is mostly known to rely on seeds and The reproductve capacity, inter-birth interval, and fruits (Hanya et al. 2003) and also catch live fsh as in the size of social groups in primates are ofen determined the Sunderban (Majumder et al. 2012). In forested by the amount of food they consume (Air 2015). Again, habitats,primates consume 25% to 40% of the total the availability of diferent food resources can reduce frugivore biomass (Chapman et al. 1995). Ingeston of seasonal fuctuatons in diet and provisioning of food fruits or young leaves with sugar and insects with protein regularly to urban primates may have adverse efects on content help to balance their diet (Janson & Chapman their behaviour, social organizaton, and conservaton 1999). Feeding paterns are also associated with human- (Sinha&Vijayakrishnan 2017). The aim of this study was macaque confict—crop raiding by macaques in villages to investgate the food habits and feeding paterns of near forest areas has increased the level of negatve urban macaques in and around (0–1 km) Asola-Bhat associaton of the species by farmers (Air 2015). The Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi. The characteristc features of dependency of urban macaques on anthropogenic food this sanctuary such as the availability of food resources resources and their behaviours associated with food infringe villages and food provisioning by the public utlisaton from urban areas ofen increase the risk of have played an infuental roles in the feeding ecology undesirable interactons with human beings (Sha & of its Rhesus Macaques. Informaton of dietary paterns Hanya 2013). of urban macaques will enhance the knowledge of its In urban landscapes, the nutriton required for natural history and survival and that will help in the primates becomes highly questonable. Urban macaques management of the species in urban ecosystems. largely share human food resources (Gupta 2001) and depend on cultvated crops, plants, and even garbage (Lee et al. 1986). In some cases, macaques depend on humans for being fed (Strum 1994)—the feeding paterns of primates that live in tourist sites and temples

12908 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2018 | 10(15): 12907–12915 Dietary preference and feeding paterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Ganguly & Chauhan

MATERIALS AND METHODS large, deep pits. The largest water-flled pit is Neeli-Jheel, situated 3km from Gate No. 7, where urban monkeys are Study area intermitently released afer capture since 2007. The dominant tree species in Asola-Bhat Wildlife Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in South Sanctuary are Prosopis julifora, a natve species introduced Delhi District (28.410–28.490 N and 77.190N–77.270 E) and to counter forest degradaton (Burkart 1976; Pasiecznik covers a total area of about 6,874ha and there is a high et al. 2001), which and present at high (7.68%), moderate density of Acacia pendula,scrub forests, and trees with a (16.03%), and low (47.90%) densites,and Anogeissus short diameters (Kushwaha et al. 2014) (Fig. 1). The forest pendula and Acacia nilotca, present in forest plantaton, area is located at the foothills of the Aravalli range and is scrub vegetaton (12.04%), water bodies (0.16%), and about 16km long and 4.3km wide, with elevaton ranging human setlements (2.92%) (Kushwaha et al. 2014). There from 235–288 m. The forest is surrounded by hilly areas were no Rhesus Macaques in the area before translocaton with shrubs, stunted trees, and moderate density forest began and the present populaton is derived entrely cover and is adjacent to the urban areas of Delhi-Haryana from relocated animals alone. This area exhibits extreme interstate border region, Sangam Vihar, Faridabad fuctuaton in annual temperature, with summer highs (Surajkund Road), Pali Village, Satberi, Deragaon, in May (43–47 0C) and winter lows in January (60C). June Fatepurberi, and Anangpur. This protected area has to September is the wet season with an average annual semi-arid vegetaton with xerophytc plants and several rainfall of about 617mm. This sanctuary is composed of

Figure 1. Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi, India

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Asola Village in the north and Bhat area in the south. It Table 1. Group compositon of the relocated Rhesus Macaques is a man-made sanctuary and the only protected area in followed for studying feeding habitsin Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi Delhi. Most of the area of the sanctuary is degraded with the prevalence of xerophytc plants (Khanna & Sat 2003). AM AF SAM SAF JUV INF Total Vegetaton shows remarkable dominance of shrubs and 1 3 4 7 8 5 2 33 stunted trees (Naithani et al. 2006). 2 2 3 8 7 6 4 37

3 2 3 2 3 3 1 14

Study groups 4 3 4 5 9 5 4 33 We sighted a total of 16 groups of translocated 5 2 3 7 9 3 1 32 Rhesus Macaques in the area. Observatons were made 6 3 4 6 8 4 2 33 from a close distance of <10m and data on demography and food habits were collected from 06.00–18.00 hr 7 4 6 7 9 4 2 36 daily from May 2016 to June 2017. Group size varied 8 3 5 5 7 5 3 28 from 14 to 63 individuals per group (30.57±2.67) and a 9 7 11 14 13 11 7 63 total of 492 (n) individuals were observed (Table 1). 10 5 7 6 9 3 1 32 11 2 3 7 11 2 3 34 Food categories 12 3 5 5 8 2 3 26 We classifed the food consumed by the relocated 13 3 4 4 5 4 5 25

Rhesus Macaques into categories based on variatons in 14 2 5 4 6 2 2 21 resource availability: 15 3 4 3 5 2 3 20 i) Natural plant species: The natural plants, trees, 16 2 3 6 7 4 3 25 herbs, and shrubs available in the sanctuary. AM - adult male, AF - adult female, SAM - sub-adult male, SAF - sub-adult ii) Supplementary foods: Food given by the forest female, JUV - juvenile, INF - infant (N=492). department daily in this sanctuary for feeding the Rhesus Macaques only (seasonal vegetables and fruits; 2500kg/ day). Dehradun. iii) Provisioned food: Banana and roadside food (bread and chick-pea) thrown by the public to Focal sampling technique the macaques daily; the macaques ofen travel to the We focused on individuals (adult male/ adult female/ boundary walls, cross it, and sit on the highway it to have juvenile/ infant) and made 12 entries per hour of these itemsthe the. theiractvitesins. We recorded the tme spent by that iv) Anthropogenic food: Garbage and human food focal individualson each food plant and the parts eaten resources (Indian bread, oily fries, and potato chips) along with thetme spent at diferent feeding sites. We snatched by the macaques daily from human setlements recorded 13,874 focal samples and categorized the situated within 0.5km of the protected area. diferent plant parts eaten by the macaques. v) Water: Water from channelsmade in the We estmated the tme spent feeding on diferent sanctuary exclusively for Rhesus Macaques (a total of 36 food items in a day as per theformula by Gupta &Kumar in number). (1994): vi) Others: Insects, soil, lizards, and bird eggs. Ta = Na / N x 100,

where Ta is the percentage of tme spent on an Scan sampling technique actvity a, Na is the number of records with actvity a, Instantaneous or scan sampling (Altmann 1974) was andN is the total number of records for the day. used to gather informaton on the feeding habits and Analysis: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to food items of the macaques. Group scans were taken compare the feeding tme on food categories and the on all visible members of the group for 5min at every number of food plants eaten monthly and seasonally 10-minute interval. We recorded 13,740 scan samples (Simpson et al. 1960). Independent sample t-test was and the type of food items eaten (young leaves,mature used to analyse the diference in the average tme spent leaves, roots, stems, fowers, fruits, shoots, gum, bark, on each category. Chi square test was performed to or animal prey). We collected the unidentfed species compare the associaton between groups. Microsof for taxonomic identfcaton (leaves, stem, and fruits) Excel 2010 was used to summarize the data and Minitab through herbarium in the Wildlife Insttute of India, version 17.0 sofware and web tool were used to calculate

12910 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2018 | 10(15): 12907–12915 Dietary preference and feeding paterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Ganguly & Chauhan descriptve statstcs. Landsat data imageries 2016 and water 9.46±1.13 and others (insects, birds’ eggs, lizards ArcGIS sofware were used to map the study area using etc.) 6.02±0.60 and one-way ANOVA analysis showed coordinates collected during the data sampling though signifcant diference in percent tme spent on various Garmin GPS 72H. food categories per day (F=4.09, df=5, P=0.01). The maximum tme was spent on bananas (31%), followed by seasonal vegetables (27%), fruits (13.07%), bread RESULTS (8.02%), garbage (7.8%), and icecreams (6%) and difered signifcantly (t=3.63, df=5, P=0.01). Food categories Food plants, plant families, parts eaten, and the Seasonality and Diet average percentage of tme spent feeding on each plant Average percentage tme spent on each food species are given in Table 2. The macaques were mostly category was calculated for each month. The overall found to feed on Fabaceae (8.76±2.64), Moraceae mean tme spent on natural plant species was (2.60±2.06), Rhamnaceae (0.34±0.02), and Mytraceae 13.29±2.32, in supplementary feeding provided by forest (0.06±0.03) families. Among the plant parts (nature department 50.19±3.49, in anthropogenic food category food items) eaten, 34.65% of feeding tme was spent 18.18±1.41, and in provisional food by public 18.34±4 on leaves, followed by 31% on bark and piths, 22.90% throughout the year including summer, monsoon, and on fowers, and 11.01% on fruits. The macaques were winter months (Table 3). We recorded the dietary mostly found in the lower canopy and botom of trees patern and found that the maximum average tme was in summer (39.13%), in the upper canopy in monsoon spent on supplementary food in all seasons followed (31.26%), and in the middle to lower canopy in the by a maximum on provisioned food in winter (26%), in winter (19%). The species was observed to spend 79% summer (18%), and a minimum during monsoon (11%). tme on the ground and only 21% tme on the trees. The macaques were observed spending maximum tme We investgated the spato-temporal feeding consuming natural plant species (17.68%) during the patern of Rhesus Macaques in the sanctuary (Fig. 2). rainy season, apart from supplementary food. ANOVA Daily percentage tme spent on consuming diferent analysis showed that there was no statstcally signifcant food categories (mentoned above) varied signifcantly diference in the total dietary intake patern throughout with tme intervals from 06:00–18:00 hr. Macaques the year (F=0.05, df=11, P>0.05). adopted their feeding strategy to access all kind of resources available but with distnct tme management Age-sex feeding patern in groups practce. On average natural plant species eaten was We recorded the percentage of tme spent by calculated (mean±SE) 22.13±6.60, provisioned food individuals in a group on each food type (Table 4). We 14.63±3.53, supplementary food by forest department calculated the average percentage tme spent on all food 35.2±10.2, anthropogenic food resources 37.88±1.49, categories by adult males (25.0±8.17), adult females

Figure 2. Percentage of tme spent on diferent food categories by relocated Rhesus Macaques per day from 06:00–18:00 hr in the sanctuary

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Table 2. Percentage of feeding tme spent on each plant species by relocated Rhesus Macaques in Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary in Delhi

Percentage of Family Scientfc name Common name Parts eaten tme spent (%) 1. Salvadoraceae Salvadora persica Meswak Leaf, stem 0.18

Pithecellobium dulce Jungle Jalebi Leaf 7.08

Prosopis julifora Kikar/Babul Leaf, fower 16.34

2. Fabaceae Prosopis cineraria Khejri Leaf 11.09

Pongamia pinnata Indian Beech Leaf 0.14

Acacia nilotca Babul Leaf, bark 9.16

Psidium guajava Guava Fruit 0.09 3. Myrtaceae Syzygium cumini Jamun Leaf, fruit 0.03

Ficus benjamina Fig Tree Leaf 6.7

4. Moraceae Ficus racemosa Fig Tree Fruit 0.04

Ficus benghalensis Banyan Fig Leaf, bark 1.07

5. Euphorbiaceae Sapium sebiferum Chineese Tallow Tree Flower 0.89

6. Carisseae Carissa opaca Wild Karonda Fruit 1.08

7. Malvaceae Hibiscus ovalifolius Roselle Flower 0.47

8. Amaranthaceae Alternanthera sp. Joyweed Leaf 0.71

Dendrocalamus strictus Bamboo Leaf 4.59 9. Poaceae Eleusine indica Indian Goosegrass Leaf 0.7

10. Legumes Cassia fstula Amaltas Leaf 0.81

11. Zygophyllaceae Balanites aegyptaca Desert Date (Hingot) Leaf 0.59

Zizyphus mauritana Ber Leaf 0.38

12. Rhamnaceae Zizyphus oenoplia Ber Leaf 0.29

Zizyphus sp. Ber Leaf 0.37

13. Cleomaceae Cleome viscosa Asian Spider Flower Leaf 0.11

14. Capparaceae Capparis sepiaria Wild Caper Bush Leaf 0.57

15. Rutaceae Citrus sp. Nimbu Leaf 1.39

16. Apocynaceae Calotropis procera Rubber Bush Leaf 3.81

17. Meliaceae Azadirecta indica Neem Leaf 7.56

18. Moringaceae Moringa oleifera Drumstck Tree Fruit 3.43

19. Combretaceae Terminalia arjuna Arjun Bark 7.01

20. Solanaceae Datura innoxia Datura Leaf, fower 7.15

21. Verbenaceae Lantana camera Sage Tree Leaf 3.68

Table 3. Food categories, average tme spent based on seasonal variaton, day length of consuming food categories, and average number of partcipants at a tme during feeding actvity

Average Average tme spent (%) Day length Food categories number of (hours) Summer Monsoon Winter Mean±SE partcipants Plant species 12.45 17.68 9.75 13.29±2.32 5 9

Supplementary food 53 54.32 43.25 50.19±3.49 9 32

Anthropogenic food 16.55 17 21 18.18±1.41 2 11

Provisioned food 18 11 26 18.34±4.33 4 29

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(22.01±7.13), sub-adult males (7.92±4.02), sub adult throughout the day in the fringes of the sanctuary. females (6.06±3.19), juveniles (0.65±0.20,) and infants Between 09:00hr and 11:00hr, macaques gathered at (0). Adult males dominated the patern and used up feeding statons within the sanctuary near the Bhat the maximum amount of food provided to them and Range Ofce, reaching a peak number between 12:00hr spent the maximum tme on it. Adult females were and 15:00hr (53.75%). The macaques were reportedly much protectve and did not allow their infants to feed given 2,500kg food per day by the forest department and on artfcial foods. Infants compensated their nutritonal this feeding patern had a large infuence on their daily requirement through lactaton only. actvity and movement. During supplementary feeding, the macaques did not consume natural plants within the forest area. The relocated Rhesus Macaques were highly DISCUSSION inclined towards human food outside the sanctuary and ofen entered nearby houses or snatched bread Non-human primates compete with human beings for and vegetables from open markets in the nearby Sanjay resource utlisaton and space, which can lead to negatve Colony (Bhat Mines). interactons (Priston & Underdown 2009), especially Our results showed that the macaques mostly in urban areas (Lee & Priston 2005). In India, Rhesus preferred leaves and stems of Prosopis julifora (16.34%) Macaques ofen co-exist with human populatons and and P. cineraria (11.09%), which were reported to be are highly dependent on them for food (Southwick et al. benefcial for their health. The heartwood of these two 1976). The high feeding dependency on anthropogenic plant species contains ample antoxidants such as favonol food resources is, however, not correlated with natural and mesquitol (Sirmah et al. 2009). Though numerous resource scarcity. While natural resources such as species of medicinal plants and fruitng trees are available fruits are highly variable over the year, anthropogenic in the sanctuary, the macaques did not spend much tme food resources are potentally more stable and easily in natural foraging but mostly depended on artfcial available. A study on Long-tailed Macaques Macaca feeding. Our results showed a high consumpton of fascicularis showed that the main drivers for exploitaton supplementary food items throughout the year with of anthropogenic foods were natural food plant resource no seasonal diferences and low average tme spent on scarcity or an overt dependence on anthropogenic foods natural food plants. The macaques showed dependency (Sha & Hanya 2013). Utlizaton of anthropogenic food on anthropogenic and provisioned food over natural resources lowered preferences of macaques on fruits fruit. The former included bananas, seasonal fruits and natural plants in another study (Hambali et al. 2014). and vegetables, bread, chickpeas, fried snacks, and ice- The consequences of the dependency of macaques creams; the macaques were even reported to steal cold on human food resources can include food stealing, water from refrigerators of houses in nearby localites at which may lead to negatve interactons with humans. a 0.25–5 km distance (USA Today 2017). In our study, the relocated Rhesus Macaques were Roadside food provisioning is a common practce more inclined towards anthropogenic, supplementary, across cites and villages in India. Southwick et al. (1976) and provisioned food resources than natural plant documented the impact of artfcial feeding on the resources in the forest. As this sanctuary is situated in ecology and behaviour of macaques. Our study provides a human-dominated landscape and human setlements informaton on feeding practces of Rhesus Macaques are located close by (less than 50m away), Rhesus afer translocaton to an area containing various types Macaques disperse from the sanctuary and consume of natural and anthropogenic food resources in a food from nearby households, markets, and temple human-dominated landscape. An understanding of the areas. The forest department of Delhi Government was basic natural history of primates is essental for their also assigned to provide supplementary food to the conservaton (Caro 2007; Fashing 2007). The primary rehabilitated macaques for the maintenance of a viable threat primates face today is habitat destructon populaton in the newly introduced environment. (Wieczkowski 2004; Chapman et al. 2006). By reducing Our results showed that the macaques fed on natural forest size and quality, habitat destructon leads to the plant species in the early morning between 06:00– 09:00 reducton of food sources for forest-dwelling primates hr (40.8%), afer which their tendency to consume natural and, in some cases, threatens them with local extncton resources declined before rising in the late afernoon (Lee &Hauser 1998; Muoria et al. 2003). The increasing (21.75%). Food provisioning by the public was recorded populaton of Rhesus Macaques living in proximity mostly in the early morning (25%) and contnued to human habitatons has become a major issue in

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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2018 | 10(15): 12907–12915 12915 OPEN ACCESS The Journal of Threatened Taxa is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows unrestricted use of artcles in any medium, reproducton, and distributon by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publicaton.

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online); ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)

December 2018 | Vol. 10 | No. 15 | Pages: 12907–13046 Date of Publicaton: 26 December 2018 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2018.10.15.12907-13046

Artcles Contributon to the Macromycetes of West Bengal, India: 28–33 -- Rituparna Saha, Arun Kumar Duta, Soumitra Paloi, Anirban Roy & Dietary preference and feeding paterns of the urban Rhesus Macaque Krishnendu Acharya, Pp. 13006–13013 Macaca mulata (Mammalia: Primates: Cercopithecidae) in Asola-Bhat Wildlife Sanctuary in India -- Ishita Ganguly & Netrapal Singh Chauhan, Pp. 12907–12915 Notes

Postembryonic development of the Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab The identfcaton of Takin Budorcas taxicolor (Mammalia: Bovidae) through Tachypleus tridentatus (Merostomata: Xiphosura) in a nursery habitat in the dorsal guard hair Philippines -- Manokaran Kamalakannan, Pp. 13014–13016 -- Dorkas Kaiser & Sabine Schoppe, Pp. 12916–12932 Photographic evidence of Striped Hyena Hyaena hyaena (Mammalia: Carnivora: Hyaenidae) in Ramnagar forest division, Utarakhand, India Communicatons -- Vipul Maurya, Jai Pratap Singh, Kahkashan Naseem, Surender Mehra, Parag M. Dhakate, Neha Verma & A.G. Ansari, Pp. 13017–13019 Copulatory behavior of the Jaguar Panthera onca (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) Range extension of the Least Leaf-nosed Bat Hipposideros cineraceus -- Pedro Nacib Jorge-Neto, Cristane Schilbach Pizzuto, Gediendson Ribeiro de Blyth, 1853 (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Hipposideridae): to central India Araujo, Thyara de Deco-Souza, Leanes Cruz da Silva, Jorge Aparecido Salomão Jr. -- M. Kamalakannan, C. Venkatraman, Tauseef Hamid Dar & Kailash Chandra, & Hernan Baldassare, Pp. 12933–12939 Pp. 13020–13023

Amphibians of the Dibang River Basin, Arunachal Pradesh: an annotated A report on the possible interbreeding between Grizzled Giant Squirrel checklist with distributon records Ratufa macroura and Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica from -- Jayanta K. Roy, Ramie H. Begum & M. Firoz Ahmed, Pp. 12940–12952 Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in the southern Western Ghats, India -- Kiran Thomas, D.K. Vinodkumar, Jomals Mathews John, M. Shaji & P.O. Taxonomic studies on the gaudy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphoidea: Nameer, Pp. 13024–13028 Pyrgomorphidae) from the northeastern states of India -- M. Imran Khan, M. Kamil Usmani, Shahnila Usmani & Hira Naz, Ischnura fountaineae (Insecta: Odonata: Zygoptera) in Oman, eastern Arabia Pp. 12953–12968 -- Elaine Mary Cowan & Peter John Cowan, Pp. 13029–13031

Odonata (Insecta) diversity of Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary and its adjoining First record of Leptogenys hysterica Forel, 1900 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: areas, Odisha, eastern India Ponerinae) from Pakistan -- Subrat Debata & Kedar Kumar Swain, Pp. 12969–12978 -- Muhammad Tariq Rasheed, Imran Bodlah, Ammara Gull e Fareen & Xiaolei Huang, Pp. 13032–13036

Short Communicatons First report of darkling beetle Blaps orientalis Solier, 1848 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) from India -- V.D. Hegde, D. Vasanthakumar & S.V. Manthen, Pp. 13037–13038 On the diversity of the vertebrate fauna (excluding fshes) of Panchet Hill (Garh Panchkot), Purulia, West Bengal, India Notes on the occurrence of orchids Bulbophyllum medioximum, Herminium -- Sanjib Chatopadhyay, Somenath Dey & Utpal Singha Roy, 12979–12985 edgeworthii and H. macrophyllum (Orchidaceae) in Arunachal Pradesh, India First record of the rare Furry Lobster Palinurellus wieneckii (De Man, 1881) -- Krishna Chowlu, Avishek Bhatacharjee & Pankaj Kumar, Pp. 13039–13043 (Decapoda: Palinuridae) from the Arabian Sea -- K.K. Idreesbabu, C.P. Rajool Shanis & S. Sureshkumar, Pp. 12986–12989 Lectotypifcaton of two names in the genus Gymnostachyum (Acanthaceae) -- M.C. Shameer & V.K. Sreenivas, Pp. 13044–13045 Descripton of life stages of dung beetle Scaptodera rhadamistus (Fabricius, 1775) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) with notes on nestng and biology Miscellaneous -- Suvarna S. Khadakkar, Ashish D. Tiple & Arun M. Khurad, Pp. 12990–12994 Member Natonal Biodiversity Authority An updated list of Odonata of southwestern Bangladesh -- M. Sajjad Hossain Tuhin & M. Kawsar Khan, Pp. 12995–13001

On the reproductve biology of Salacia frutcosa Wall. ex M.A. Lawson - an endemic medicinal plant of the Western Ghats, india -- K. Subin, P.A. Jose & T.V. Sarath, Pp. 13002–13005 Publisher & Host

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