Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
that wild macaques are acquired from villagers in various areas throughout
the country (McFadden and Chandara, 2005). The market forces driving
this harvest are intense as each live wild macaque fetches USD$50 (200,000
Riels) (Rawson, 2007), an amount which is at least twice the monthly wage
of a rural worker. Hence, it is understandable that no efforts are spared by
hunters and villagers to trap this species throughout Cambodia. In the village
of I Tub in northern Ratanakiri Province, villagers are actively involved in
the harvest of long-tailed macaques for commercial trade, and there seems
to be an organized trade structure in dealing macaques (Rawson, 2007).
Being a commensal that is tolerant of degraded habitats, many macaque
groups occur close to human settlements. Such groups are at severe risk
of being hunted or trapped, given the current practice of village hunters
to harvest them to supply their demand. Rawson (2007) has reported the
modus operandi
of the village farmers in hunting macaques (
Figure 3.4
).
The target troop of macaques is isolated in a large tree by cutting down all
the surrounding trees within a 25-30 m radius. Several nets then encircle the
lone tree and a hunter climbs the tree to force the monkeys to drop to the
ground and they are captured. Such a hunting method involves wanton for-
est destruction as about 50-100 trees with a
dbh
(diameter at breast height)
above 10 cm are removed from each site with chainsaws and axes, resulting
in large forest gaps and cleared land. This has severe implications for the
conservation of other wildlife species.
During this study, long-tailed macaques were not observed during a five-
day survey to villages in the districts of Veun Sai, Ou Chum and Lumphat
covering about 200 km, despite the presence of suitable habitats for
M. fas-
cicularis
. The banks of Tonle San and Tonle Srepok were also visited, and
no macaques were observed. Within the vicinity of Ban Lung town, a com-
munity-protected area in Yeak Laom Commune was visited on two separate
days but no long-tailed macaques were seen. None of the farmer-hunters
(n=4) interviewed harvested long-tailed macaques in recent times, although
one recalled hunting them and other primates in the 1980s with guns. There
was a general consensus that all wildlife species have declined drastically
in the past five to ten years. The villagers at I Tub presented a very dif-
ferent view and claimed that long-tailed macaques were “very abundant”,
even though trapping was occurring (Rawson, 2007). In the central market of
Ban Lung where wild meat is traded openly, no long-tailed macaques, dead
or alive, were on sale despite carrying out an entire month of daily market
monitoring.
To ascertain the population trend of
M. fascicularis
with some degree
of reliability, it would be instructive to get conservation staff, researchers,
