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In-Depth Information
Table 4.1. Conflict-related behavior recorded during the study
Behavior categories
Description
Take trash
Taking items from garbage cans.
Leave trash
Carrying and dispersing rubbish from garbage cans.
Enter residence
Enter into student's room or cafeteria at college residence.
Aggression
Behavior such as threatening or chasing students.
Take property
Taking food, clothes, or other belonging of students.
Damage property
Damaging clothes or other property (e.g., scratching cars)
of several individuals. Each individual was confirmed as belonging to a cer-
tain group by its movement in tandem with the movement of the group. This
was to avoid observation errors associated with assigning individuals to
more than one group. According to Chalmers ( 1979 ), there are four criteria
in ascertaining whether an individual belongs to a particular group, which
we used in this study. These are (1) observation through the tandem move-
ments; (2) determining the occurrence of dispersal among individuals; (3)
identifying whether spatial relationships influenced the individual to stay
in a group; and (4) determining whether the formation of group is only for
a short period. All groups interacted with humans and overlapped with the
student dormitories.
Behavioral sampling method
From eight identified groups, four groups were chosen for observations.
These groups were selected because they interfaced most closely with
people. Observations of macaque behavior were conducted from 2003 until
2009. We began our observations with preliminary ad libitium observations
to understand and describe both the subject and the behaviors that were
intended for measurement purposes (Martin and Bateson, 1993 ). To obtain
information on nuisance problems of M. fascicularis , full day observations
from dawn to dusk were made, using focal sampling and ad libitum sam-
pling methods (Altmann, 1974 ). Most of the surveys were conducted by
Faculty of Science and Technology students in several student residential
colleges where long-tailed macaques frequently range. In this survey, we
only concentrated on conflict between humans and long-tailed macaques.
The behavior categories ( Table 4.1 ) were based on preliminary observa-
tion. Frequencies of nuisance behaviors were compared statistically using
X 2 test.
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