RESEARCH ARTICLE

RANGING PATTERN OF DUSKY TOQUE MACAQUES (Macaca sinica aurifrons) INHABITING PERADENIYA UNIVERSITY PREMISES, SRI LANKA

Abstract

Ranging pattern explains how animals use their space for feeding, social organization and mating strategies. Thus, collective of ranging pattern of a certain individual is termed as home range. Size of an individuals’ home range is dependent on factors including seasonality, climatic variables, food resource distribution, population density and group size and body size. Current study is focused on ranging pattern of Macaca sinica aurifrons, under three main aspects: to construct the home range, to evaluate home range usage and to evaluate how climatic variables effects home range size and Mean Daily Path Length (MDPL). Study was conducted from January to June 2016 in Peradeniya University premises. Movement patterns of the study troop were recorded using a GPS recorder. Home range and MDPLs were constructed using ArcGIS 10.3 software package. Total home range size was 0.64 km2. Mean daily path length was 1.32 ± 0.16 km. Monthly average temperature was negatively correlated with monthly home range sizes (r= -0.836 p= 0.038) and MDPL (r= -0.987 p= 0.001). Monthly average precipitation did not affect the monthly home range size and MDPL. However, monthly home range sizes and MDPL were reduced to compensate the thermoregulatory cost in terms of energy. Study suggests that macaques are highly adaptive mammals in reference to changing habitat quality and temperature, proving their potential behavioral plasticity. Hence, they are useful as indicator organisms to assess environmental changes such as temperature alterations.

Keywords: Macaca sinica aurifrons, Home range, Mean Daily path Length, Temperature, Precipitation

How to Cite: Weerasekara,W.M.L.S, Ranawana,K.B, (2017). RANGING PATTERN OF DUSKY TOQUE MACAQUES (Macaca sinica aurifrons) INHABITING PERADENIYA UNIVERSITY PREMISES, SRI LANKA.WILDLANKA, 5(4):Pages 172-184

Published On:2017-12-31

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