Nonhuman primates and cattle: a camera trap survey of inter-specific spatial and temporal overlap

Nonhuman primates are threatened across their distribution, with habitat loss, disease, poaching, and the pet trade causing widespread population decline. An understudied threat is the growing presence of cattle in primate habitat, with the increased exposure to human and bovid pathogens, domestic dogs that accompany herders, and habitat degradation. We investigated cattle-primate spatial and temporal overlap using 13 motion triggered cameras over a 16-month period (2023-2024). We detected cattle and primate presence in 5/13 cameras, all in open vegetation (woodland or grasslands). Yellow baboons and vervet monkeys spatially overlapped with cattle, whilst chimpanzees and red-tailed monkeys were only observed in riparian forests, and so did not overlap with cattle. We found no relationship between primates and cattle observations ( r 2 = 0.49, n = 12, p = 0.1), suggesting that there is no avoidance between species but we did find an effect of season on primate activity on cattle-present vs cattle-absent cameras ( χ 2 (1, N = 176) = 7.21, p = 0.007), with more primate observations on cattle-present cameras during the dry season. Primates and cattle observed on the same cameras exhibited similar diel activity patterns, compared to earlier and later primate presence in non-cattle cameras. We conclude by discussing the implications for cattle-primate overlap, and next steps to better understand this coexistence.