The Role of Landscape Structure in Primate Crop Feeding: Insights from Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) in Northern India

Human-modified landscapes play an important role in supporting the survival of primate populations, but they may also facilitate human-primate interactions, possibly leading to negative outcomes. We conducted a scalar investigation of the role of landscape structure in shaping the intensity of crop feeding by a generalist primate species, the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) in northern India. At the species level, we used behavioral sampling techniques to assess habitat selection by two groups of rhesus macaques. At the landscape level, we used GIS-based analyses to quantify landscape structure in terms of class-level and patch-level metrics and correlated it with macaque crop feeding intensities. We found that, on average, both study groups spent only 15% of their total feeding time on cultivars. However, they spent a large proportion of their feeding (BH: 75% and CH: 36%) and ranging (BH: 72% and CH: 39%) time in agroecosystem habitats. Landscape level analysis showed that crop feeding intensity was not related to total area under cultivation. Instead, macaque crop feeding intensity was positively correlated to the arrangement of deciduous forest patches beside cultivated area patches. Our findings call for careful appraisal of landscape management practices as a potential mitigation strategy for primate crop-depredation in such human-modified landscapes.