An uncommon performing monkey: behavioural flexibility and social diversity in the Northern Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiata radiata

Abstract

The northern bonnet macaque (Macaca radiata radiata) is a cercopithecine primate, distributed ubiquitously across peninsular India and occurring in a variety of habitat types including dense human habitations. How the species has come to colonise such diverse habitats is, however, still not well understood. A close investigation of an earlier documented, unusual variation in the newlinesocial organisation within a single population of the northern subspecies of bonnet macaques in the Bandipur National Park, Karnataka state, revealed a diverse array of behavioural strategies that individuals in this population employ to cope with relatively recent changes in their newlineecological and social environments. The current study thus aimed to elucidate how a change in the social organisation the stable appearance of unimale-multifemale groups within a matrix of typical multimale-multifemale groups triggered perhaps by varying ecological factors, has had newlinea profound effect on the patterns of competition between troops and among individuals, especially adult females, within particular troops in this population. The study also investigates how adult females have responded to these social changes with variable patterns of affiliation newlineand allogrooming while the adult males have adopted different mating strategies. Having newlinecharacterised the social variation in this population, this study suggests that the behavioural flexibility that has enabled this macaque to evolve diverse, adaptive behavioural strategies has also perhaps allowed it to uniquely occupy different ecological habitats. The study is perhaps the newlinefirst comprehensive study that investigates within-population variation in social structure and behavioural strategies in an Indian primate species the northern bonnet macaque, providing evidence of how primate social systems can evolve rapidly under rapidly changing ecological regimes.