There was also a small cage that appeared to be like a mini maze for the Lion Tailed Macaque’s to climb and explore in and around. There were also many dead leaves scattered around the dead trees and logs as a form of entertainment for them. As well as the leaf litter, there was quite a few rocks and small boulders that the Lion Tailed Macaque enjoyed jumping off back onto some of the dead trees ad logs. In the enclosure there were 6 Lion Tailed Macaque.

The enclosure at the zoo was quite different to where a Lion Tailed Macaque would live in the wild. The enclosure at the zoo was very exposed with minimal greenery. However, in the wild, The Lion Tailed Macaque lives in shady evergreen forests in the Western Ghats range in South-western India with lots of greenery and lush trees and plants.

In the wild, the Lion Tailed Macaque lives in tree groups of around 10-20, however, in the enclosure, there were only 6 Lion Tailed Macaque living together. In the wild, the Lion Tailed Macaque lives at elevations of 2500-3000 feet whereas in the zoo, they lived much closer to sea level.

The only similarity with the environments of the Lion Tailed Macaque in the wild and in an enclosure was on the ground. In the evergreen forests and the zoo enclosure, there was a lot of leaf litter scattered around.

As you can see, the environments of the Lion Tailed Macaque in the wild and in the zoo enclosure differ significantly.

Ethogram of main behaviours:

Reasons for studying two certain animals

Animal No.1:

I chose to study the behaviour of this Lion Tailed Macaque because it appeared to be the youngest and most active of all the members of the group. It appeared to enjoy jumping around and climbing a manner of objects such as trees and the cage. It was also frequently called upon by the older members of the group to groom them and also to fetch them food on one occasion.

I estimated this particular Lion Tailed Macaque to be around 3-4 years old and male.

Animal No.2:

The second Lion Tailed Macaque that I studied the behaviour of was very much different to the first Lion Tailed Macaque I studied. It appeared to be in control of the group, which gave me reason to believe that he is the Alpha Male. He seemed to be quite lazy and was frequently being groomed by all the other members of the group. He was also brought food occasionally by other members of the group as a sign that he was the oldest and wisest among them.

I estimated him to be around 14 years of age and to be the Alpha male of the Lion Tailed Macaque’s.

Data of 20mins recorded examination

Animal No. 1

Animal No.2

Fractions and percentages of time spent on each activity

Animal 1

Animal 2

Analysis of why the behaviour of the two animals may be different:

I have a few reasons to believe to why the two Lion Tailed Macaque behaved differently to one another. The main reason was probably status within the group. One Lion Tailed Macaque was much older and had power over the other group members, whereas the other Lion Tailed Macaque was the youngest and smallest in the group, meaning he had more jobs to do and had no power over the other Lion Tailed Macaque.

Another issue that affected their activity and behaviour was maturity. The older animal was more weathered and wise and preferred to relax rather than be active and jump around with other Lion Tailed Macaque doing things for him like fetching food, grooming him and so on. The more immature of the two animals, the younger one, was very much the most active in the group, thus when he was not doing things for the other Lion Tailed Macaque, spent his time climbing and jumping, perhaps in a bid to impress female members of the group.

The final aspect of behaviour that differed between the two was their interaction with other members of the group, which gives an idea of how social they are with other group members. I found that the younger of the two animals generally interacted with other members of the group more freely than the older member, which may signify he is more social than the older member and enjoys spending time with other Lion Tailed Macaque and not just himself. The older member spent all of his time with only a select few Lion Tailed Macaque that were most likely females as they did many things for him such as grooming and fetching food. I have reason to believe they are female because the Alpha Male will only have males doing things for him if females are not available.