AGE AND SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE FEEDING STRATEGIES OF A FREE-RANGING POPULATION OF MACACA MULATTA ZIMMERMAN, 1788 (PRIMATES CERCOPITHECIDAE), IN SIMLA (INDIA)

SUMMARY Field research was conducted in the winter of 1981–1982 on a free ranging population of 235 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta Zimmerman, 1788; Primates Cercopithecidae) divided into several troops, all living in a high mountain environment near the town of Simla (Himachal Pradesh), India. The scope of the research was to investigate the ecology and the social behaviour of the population in such an extreme habitat. The methods used for recording behaviour was focal animal sampling and scan observation. All the monkey troops commuted daily from the town to the forest and viceversa. Feeding behaviour was investigated on a qualitative and quantitative basis, but no attempt was made to determine the rate of energy intake of the various food ingested by the animals. By using the town food resources these monkeys were much more efficient than purely forest troops in terms of time spent feeding. However, between age and sex classes sharp differences in feeding behaviour were observed. Adult males fed for mu...