A sight record of Rhesus Macaque Macacamulatta (Primates: Cercopithecidae) in Karnataka, India

 

Raghunath R. Belur 1 & Sugandhi Gadadhar 2

 

1,2 41-A, Cunningham Apts, 5 Edward Road, Vasanthnagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560052, India

1 ranabelur@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 sugandhi.g@gmail.com

 

 

 

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3755.5583-4  | ZooBank:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:011D56AA-914C-48A3-9B25-A72867C5205D

 

Editor: Mewa Singh, Mysore University, Mysuru, India.   Date of publication:26 March 2014 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: Ms # o3755 | Received 26 August 2013 | Final received 05 March 2014 | Finally accepted 09 March 2014

 

Citation: Belur, R.R. & S. Gadadhar (2014). A sight record of Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta(Primates: Cercopithecidae) in Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6(3): 5583–5584; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3755.5583-4

 

Copyright: © Belur & Gadadhar 2014. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

 

Funding: None.

 

Competing Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the Forest Department at ChincholiWildlife Sanctuary. We would also like to thank S. Karthikeyanand H.N. Kumara for their guidance and for reviewing the note.

 

 

 

For images -- click here

 

 

India is home to eight species of macaques (Pragatheesh 2011) with Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta and Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiatabeing the most common.  Rhesus Macaques are the most widely distributed macaques in India (Fooden2000).  Its status is assessed as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (Timmins et al. 2008) due to its wide distribution.

Within India, the Bonnet Macaque is predominantly found in southern India (Kumar et al. 2011) while the Rhesus Macaque is found in northern, central and northeasternIndia as well as Central and Southeast Asia (Kumar et al. 2011).  Initial studies revealed the southern limits of the distribution of the Rhesus Macaque to be the Godavari River with some records of the species from Hyderabad, 160km south of the river Godavari (Fooden 2000). More recent studies show the southern limits of the distribution boundary to reach the south of river Krishna and north of the Eastern Ghats (Kumar et al. 2011).  However, there is no recorded documentation of the Rhesus Macaque being found in the State of Karnataka (Fooden et al. 1981; Kumara et al. 2010; Kumar et al. 2011; Srivastava 2013).

On 02 July 2013, during a field visit to Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary, Gulbarga District, Karnataka, we were travelling on state highway 149 that traverses through the Sanctuary.  This is the road from Chandapur to Shadipur.  It was around 15:50hr and we had just passed a board with directions to the Mandi Basavanna camp (approximately 17.449823N & 77.518124E, Fig. 1).

We sighted a group of Rhesus Macaques on the main road (Images 1–3). The group was very shy and left the road as we approached it.  We were able to photograph two individuals.  We could count seven adults and two infants. We waited at the same spot for some time (approximately 20 minutes). However, the macaques did not come out into the open. On our return journey one hour later, we came back to the same spot at around 17:20hr and saw a Rhesus Macaque group on the road. As we approached them, they walked away into the undergrowth.  We then walked up to the Mandi Basavanna camp which was approximately 500m from the main road.  We spotted two Rhesus Macaques near the camp site.

Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary has been notified recently as Karnataka’s 21stWildlife Sanctuary.  The sanctuary comprises predominantly dry deciduous forests.

The current sighting indicates the presence of Rhesus Macaques in Karnataka that was previously not found (Kumara et al. 2010; Kumar et al. 2011). There have been reports of Rhesus Macaques in the neighboringstates of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The closest recorded sightings of the Rhesus Macaques are from just 100km away in Hyderabad, Medak and Mahbubnagar (Kumar et al. 2011; Srivastava2013) in Andhra Pradesh.  Their presence at Chincholi Wildlife Sanctuary could be due to a natural extension of the geographical boundary for the Rhesus Macaques (Fooden et al. 1981), or the population could have been introduced artificially in these or nearby areas (Koyama & Shekar 1981; Kumar et al. 2011).

 

References

 

Fooden, J. (2000). Systematic review of the Rhesus Macaque, Macaca mulatta (Zimmermann, 1780). Fieldiana Zoologica 96: 1–180.

Fooden, J., A. Mahabal& S.S. Saha (1981). Redefinition of Rhesus Macaque-Bonnet Macaque boundary in peninsular India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 78: 463–474.

Koyama, N. & P.B. Shekar (1981). Geographic distribution of the rhesus and bonnet monkeys in westcentral India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 78: 240–255.

Kumar, R., S. Radhakrishna & A. Sinha(2011). Of Least Concern?Range Extension by Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) Threatens Long-Term Survival of Bonnet Macaques (M. radiata) in Peninsular India. International Journal of Primatology 32(4): 945−959; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10764-011-9514-y

Kumara, H.N., S. Kumar & M. Singh (2010). Of how much concern are the ‘least concern’ species? Distribution and conservation status of Bonnet Macaques, Rhesus Macaques and Hanuman Langurs in Karnataka, India. Primates 51: 37–42; http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-009-0168-8

Pragatheesh, A. (2011). Effect of human feeding on the road mortality of Rhesus Macaques on National Highway - 7 routed along Pench Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 3(4): 1656–1662; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2669.1656-62

Srivastava, A.(2013). Rhesus Macaque, pp. 134–147. In: Johnsingh, A.J.T. & N. Manjrekar (eds.). Mammals of South Asia - Volume 1. Universities Press (India) Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, lvii+614pp.

Timmins, R.J., M. Richardson, A. Chhangani & L. Yongcheng (2008). Macaca mulatta. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 01 March 2014.