Habitat context shapes rhesus macaque-induced crop damage and yield loss in rice and maize agroecosystems of the Eastern Ghats, India

ABSTRACT Crop raiding by macaques is an increasing constraint in agricultural landscapes undergoing rapid land-use change, particularly near forested habitats and plantation systems. We quantified rhesus macaque–induced ( Macaca mulatta ) crop damage and associated yield loss in rice and maize across four habitat contexts in the Eastern Ghats landscape of Andhra Pradesh, India, during two consecutive cropping years. Study sites comprised oil palm–adjacent agricultural areas, forest fringes, forest fringes with tourism influence, and plain agricultural areas (n = 3 locations per habitat). Crop damage was assessed at five crop growth stages using quadrat-based repeated-measures sampling (five fields per location), and yield loss was estimated from harvested grain. Crop damage varied significantly among habitat types (rice: F(3, 8) = 43.67, P < 0.001 ; maize: F(3, 8) = 42.96, P < 0.001) and growth stages (rice: F(1.41, 11.30) = 34.37, P < 0.001 ; maize: F(1.76, 14.08) = 32.62, P < 0.001), with oil palm–adjacent areas consistently recording the highest damage, while plain agricultural areas showed no damage. Damage peaked during reproductive stages, including panicle initiation and milking in rice (up to 21.1 ± 0.2% in oil palm–adjacent sites) and cob formation in maize (18.7 ± 2.7%), resulting in mean yield losses of 822 ± 145 kg ha⁻¹ in rice and 438 ± 98 kg ha⁻¹ in maize in oil palm–adjacent areas. These findings demonstrate that habitat context and crop phenology strongly shape vertebrate pest damage and indicate that stage-targeted, non-lethal mitigation in high-risk landscapes could substantially reduce economic losses.