Honnavalli Nagaraj Kumara

Inter- and intra-specific associations of non-human primates in Anaimalai hills, South India

The study reports on the inter- and intra-specific associations of Macaca radiata, M. silenus, Presbytis entellus and P. johnii in the Anaimalai Hills of south India. Whereas M. silenus and P. entellus are found to be habitat specialists inhabiting rain forest and deciduous forest respectively, IM. radiata and P. johnii are habitat generalists found in almost every forest type. Whereas individual groups of macaques can be found to occur in absence of any other groups of their species, the langurs occur only in large intra-specific associations. It is suggested that M. silenus can be considered as an umbrella species for the management of the entire ecosystem of these hills.

Estimating Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, density through distance sampling in the tropical forests of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, India

To determine abundance, density and distribution of wild animals, it is crucial to estimate populations using reliable sampling techniques. In most earlier studies, elephant populations were estimated employing block counts or dung counts, which provide biased estimates due to limitations of the methods. We estimated an Asian elephant population using distance sampling, a quantitatively robust technique, in Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, a critical elephant conservation area in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in south India. We laid 33 transects with a total length of 93 km. We walked these transects five to 11 times amounting to a total of 795.5 km of walks. We collected data on location, number and age-sex classes through direct elephant sightings, using rangefinders, global positioning systems and compass. We used DISTANCE software for analysis. We estimated per km2 cluster density as 0.69 elephant herds, mean cluster size as 2.44, and elephant density as 1.7 animals. This amounts to a total of 713 elephants in 610 km2 of the sanctuary. A high percentage of males less than 30 years old and a low immature:adult female ratio indicated the severity of poaching in the recent past in the study region.

Pre-Historic and Recent Vicariance Events Shape Genetic Structure and Diversity in Endangered Lion-Tailed Macaque in the Western Ghats: Implications for Conservation

Genetic isolation of populations is a potent force that helps shape the course of evolution. However, small populations in isolation, especially in fragmented landscapes, are known to lose genetic variability, suffer from inbreeding depression and become genetically differentiated among themselves. In this study, we assessed the genetic diversity of lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) inhabiting the fragmented landscape of Anamalai hills and examined the genetic structure of the species across its distributional range in the Western Ghats. We sequenced around 900 bases of DNA covering two mitochondrial regions–hypervariable region-I and partial mitochondrial cytochrome b–from individuals sampled both from wild and captivity, constructed and dated phylogenetic trees. We found that the lion-tailed macaque troops in the isolated forest patches in Anamalai hills have depleted mitochondrial DNA diversity compared to troops in larger and continuous forests. Our results also revealed an ancient divergence in the lion-tailed macaque into two distinct populations across the Palghat gap, dating to 2.11 million years ago. In light of our findings, we make a few suggestions on the management of wild and captive populations.

Ranging Behavior and Resource Use by Lion-Tailed Macaques (Macaca silenus) in Selectively Logged Forests

Physical and ecological factors such as season, rainfall, food availability, number of plant species eaten, intergroup encounters, and degree of terrestriality influence the daily path length (DPL) and home range use of animals. We examined whether these factors influenced DPL and home range use in a group of endemic lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) in the selectively logged forests of Sirsi-Honnavara in the central Western Ghats Mountains of south India. We predicted that monthly rainfall, fruit tree density, number of plant species eaten, intergroup encounters, and terrestriality would correlate with DPL, and fruit tree density, overall tree density, and richness of fruiting tree species would correlate with home range use. We collected data on feeding ecology from scan sampling, and DPL and home range use by recording the geo-coordinates of the focal group with a handheld GPS during daily follows. We obtained 1230 h of observations over 24 mo between 2008 and 2011. We collected data on the density of food species and of all trees using the point-centered quarter method in 1-ha grid cells overlaid on the home range of the study group. Results showed that the mean monthly DPL correlated positively with the number of trees fruiting in a month and negatively with rainfall. Overall tree density and fruit tree density correlated positively with habitat use. These findings support the hypothesis that primary food resources are a major determinant of primate ranging patterns. Our results are also important for lion-tailed macaque conservation, in light of the pressure the habitat has been facing. We propose conservation action to include the important food species of lion-tailed macaques for habitat restoration by the local forest department.

Distribution, Demography, and Conservation of Lion-tailed Macaques (Macaca silenus) in the Anamalai Hills Landscape, Western Ghats, India

The status of the endemic and endangered lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus) has not been properly assessed in several regions of the Western Ghats of southern India. We conducted a study in Parambikulam Forest Reserve in the state of Kerala to determine the distribution, demography, and status of lion-tailed macaques. We laid 5km2 grid cells on the map of the study area (644km2) and made four replicated walks in each grid cell using GPS. We gathered data on lion-tailed macaque group locations, demography, and site covariates including trail length, duration of walk, proportion of evergreen forest, height of tallest trees, and human disturbance index. We also performed occupancy modeling using PRESENCE ver. 3.0. We estimated a minimum of 17 groups of macaques in these hills. Low detection and occupancy probabilities indicated a low density of lion-tailed macaques in the study area. Height of the tallest trees correlated positively whereas human disturbance and proportion of evergreen forest correlated negatively with occupancy in grid cells. We also used data from earlier studies carried out in the surrounding Anamalai Tiger Reserve and Nelliyampathy Hills to discuss the conservation status in the large Anamalai Hills Landscape. This landscape harbors an estimated population of 1108 individuals of lion-tailed macaques, which is about one third of the entire estimated wild population of this species. A conservation plan for this landscape could be used as a model for conservation in other regions of the Western Ghats.

Population Recovery of Nicobar Long-Tailed Macaque Macaca fascicularis umbrosus following a Tsunami in the Nicobar Islands, India

Natural disasters pose a threat to isolated populations of species with restricted distributions, especially those inhabiting islands. The Nicobar long tailed macaque.Macaca fascicularis umbrosus, is one such species found in the three southernmost islands (viz. Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal) of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, India. These islands were hit by a massive tsunami (Indian Ocean tsunami, 26 December 2004) after a 9.2 magnitude earthquake. Earlier studies [Umapathy et al. 2003; Sivakumar, 2004] reported a sharp decline in the population of M. f. umbrosus after thetsunami. We studied the distribution and population status of M. f. umbrosus on thethree Nicobar Islands and compared our results with those of the previous studies. We carried out trail surveys on existing paths and trails on three islands to get encounter rate as measure of abundance. We also checked the degree of inundation due to tsunami by using Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) on landsat imageries of the study area before and after tsunami. Theencounter rate of groups per kilometre of M. f. umbrosus in Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal was 0.30, 0.35 and 0.48 respectively with the mean group size of 39 in Great Nicobar and 43 in Katchal following the tsunami. This was higher than that reported in the two earlier studies conducted before and after the tsunami. Post tsunami, there was a significant change in the proportion of adult males, adult females and immatures, but mean group size did not differ as compared to pre tsunami. The results show that population has recovered from a drastic decline caused by tsunami, but it cannot be ascertained whether it has reached stability because of the altered group structure. This study demonstrates the effect of natural disasters on island occurring species.

Prioritizing Remnant Forests for the Conservation of Mysore Slender Lorises (Loris lyddekerianus lyddekerianus) in Karnataka, India Through Estimation of Population Density

Information on a species’ distribution, abundance, and habitat requirements is important for formalizing a comprehensive management and conservation strategy. This becomes an even higher priority when the distribution of a species lies largely outside demarcated protected areas for wildlife. We used line transect distance sampling to estimate the density of an arboreal, nocturnal, and threatened primate, the slender loris (Loris lyddekerianus lyddekerianus) across diverse habitat types including both reserve forests and production landscapes in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Abundance estimates varied from 0.16 individuals/ha in Devrayandurga State Forest to 2.57 individulas/ha in Ippadi State Forest, with the mean density estimate being highest in the Forest Division of Tumkur, at 165 individuals/km2. Based on density estimates for the survey regions, their current habitat status, and perceived threats, we identify Ippadi, Ujjani, Devrayandurga, and Savanadurga state forests as priority areas for conservation of the slender loris. We propose that these areas be declared protected. The required management intervention is preventing further degradation of the habitat and enhancing canopy contiguity to facilitate loris movement.

Impact of forest fragment size on between-group encounters in lion-tailed macaques

Between-group encounters are an obvious outcome of intergroup competition. Between-group encounters in primates range from avoidance to fatally aggressive. The prevailing hypotheses explain such encounters as mate defense strategy by males and resource defense strategy by females. However, the rate and nature of between-group encounters may also be influenced by habitat and demographic characteristics. We studied the effect of forest fragment size on group encounters in lion-tailed macaques in the Western Ghats of southern India. The encounter rate decreased as the fragment size increased. Group density and home range overlap correlated positively with the encounter rate. The aggressive encounters were more in the relatively medium-sized fragment where the observed frequency of between-group encounters was higher than the expected frequency than in the small fragment and the large forest complex. Together, these results indicate a complex pattern of effects of fragment size on between-group encounters in primates.

Distribution Patterns of Slender Loris Subspecies (Loris lydekkerianus) in Kerala, Southern India

Gray slender lorises (Loris lydekkerianus) are 1 of 2 nocturnal primate genera occurring in India. Although the distribution and abundance of the species is known for some parts of southern India, the relative distribution of the 2 subspecies, Loris lydekkerianus lydekkerianus and L. l. malabaricus, and their comparative densities and extent of overlap between their distributions remains largely unknown. We investigated the distribution pattern and relative density of slender lorises in the Western Ghats mountain range in the state of Kerala in southern India. We surveyed 36 forest ranges in 17 forest divisions of northern and central Kerala from February to November 2009 for the presence of lorises. We sighted slender lorises in 22 forest ranges in a variety of vegetation types, and the relative abundance of the species ranged from 0.02 to 1.44 lorises/km. Our results confirm that both loris subspecies are present in Kerala: Mysore slender lorises have a narrow patchy distribution on the eastern edges of the Western Ghats mountain range, and Malabar slender lorises have a fairly contiguous distribution on the western slopes of the Western Ghats. We recommend more detailed surveys in southern Kerala to identify the distribution patterns of the subspecies in these areas.

Extractive foraging and tool-aided behaviors in the wild Nicobar long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis umbrosus)

Macaques possess a repertoire of extractive foraging techniques that range from complex manipulation to tool-aided behaviors, to access food items that increase their foraging efficiency substantially. However, the complexity and composition of such techniques vary considerably between species and even between populations. In the present study, we report seven such complex manipulative behaviors that include six extractive foraging behaviors, and teeth flossing, in a population of Nicobar long-tailed macaques. The apparent purpose of these behaviors was an extraction of encased food, processing food, foraging hidden invertebrates, and dental flossing. Among these behaviors, three behaviors viz. wrapping, wiping, and teeth-flossing were tool-aided behaviors, where macaques used both natural and synthetic materials as tools. Occasionally macaques also modified those tools prior to their use. The substrate use patterns of leaf rubbing and teeth flossing were similar to that observed in other macaques. The spontaneous tool modification to perform wrapping was a first time observation. These observations suggest that Nicobar long-tailed macaques have a high level of sensorimotor intelligence which helps to evolve such innovative foraging solutions.