Human-driven habitat change is forcing nonhuman primates to exploit anthropogenic landscapes, resulting in primate crop feeding, reduced farmer food security, and human-primate conflict. Here, we investigate the crop feeding behavior of a wild group of rhesus macaques in a farm-forest mosaic in central Nepal. Macaque behavioral data were collected over 12 months using scan- and all-occurrence sampling methods, along with monitoring crop availability. We evaluated the relationship between macaque feeding behavior, crop type, availability, damage, and farmers' actions to reduce crop damage. We found that ~49% of the macaque's annual diet was composed of cultivated crops, with three crops-maize, oranges, and potatoes-accounting for ~52% of macaque crop feeding time. There was a significant positive association between monthly crop productivity and macaque feeding time on these crops. Local farmers attempted to deter macaque crop feeding 83.1% of the time, but their efforts failed to reduce crop damage. During the maize cultivation season, total maize damage caused by macaques was estimated at 1647 kg (~50 kg/ha) of dry kernels, resulting in a loss of 1.5% of total maize yield per hectare. Thus, macaque crop feeding had only a limited effect on farmer food security. We propose a set of practical and low-cost actions that can be taken to continue the current balance between the dietary needs of the rhesus macaques and the economic needs of farm families in the local community.
Koirala et al. (Sun,) studied this question.