Summary
Researchers observed adult macaque groups in Northern India, Southern India, and Malaysia. They followed a standardized protocol and collected data on human-macaque interactions, macaque-macaque aggressive and cooperative interactions, and the relative spatial positions of the subject animals within the group. Male macaques initiated more interactions with humans than female macaques. Similarly, spatially peripheral (individuals spatially located on the outskirts of their group) macaques and those of high social rank initiated comparatively more human interactions. Both male and spatially peripheral macaques displayed the most aggression towards humans. The study’s results can better inform conservation strategies by targeting specific individuals that are more likely to engage in conflict with humans and potentially transmit zoonotic diseases.
Despite increasing conflict at human–wildlife interfaces, there exists little research on how the attributes and behavior of individual wild animals may influence human–wildlife interactions. Adopting a comparative approach, we examined the impact of animals’ life-history and social attributes on interactions between humans and (peri)urban macaques in Asia. For 10 groups of rhesus, long-tailed, and bonnet macaques, we collected social behavior, spatial data, and human–interaction data for 11–20 months on pre-identified individuals. Mixed-model analysis revealed that, across all species, males and spatially peripheral individuals interacted with humans the most, and that high-ranking individuals initiated more interactions with humans than low-rankers. Among bonnet macaques, but not rhesus or long-tailed macaques, individuals who were more well-connected in their grooming network interacted more frequently with humans than less well-connected individuals. From an evolutionary perspective, our results suggest that individuals incurring lower costs related to their life-history (males) and resource-access (high rank; strong social connections within a socially tolerant macaque species), but also higher costs on account of compromising the advantages of being in the core of their group (spatial periphery), are the most likely to take risks by interacting with humans in anthropogenic environments. From a conservation perspective, evaluating individual behavior will better inform efforts to minimize conflict-related costs and zoonotic-risk.