Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
habitat, they seek out naturally disturbed areas. One can expect to see many
groups around villages, cultivated fields, and along rivers. In a similar vein,
Kurland (
1973
) reported these macaques to be “clustered around native vil-
lages on the rivers, kra macaques often aggressively indulge in and defend the
garbage of human habitation” (see also Southwick and Cadigan,
1972
). Long-
tailed macaque numbers sometimes increase after logging (Fooden,
1995
).
Richard
et al
. (
1989
) described both
M. fascicularis
and
M. mulatta
as “weed”
species that exploit early succession, riparian and humanly disturbed areas.
They suggested that these species exploited naturally occurring ecological
“edges” during the Pleistocene, and that their distributions have been import-
antly influenced by human disturbances which have so greatly expanded the
areas of disturbed secondary habitat in eastern Asia (see also van Schaik
et al
.,
1996
). They also surmise that these “weed” or, as we prefer to call them (as
did Medway,
1970
), “edge” species are “camp-followers” of humans.
Although baboons and chimpanzees are the primates most often utilized in
developing models of early human evolution and behavior, for a number of
reasons, including their adaptability and habitat choices,
Macaca fascicularis
are also a potentially good model for reconstructing how our earliest ancestors
may have lived (see Hart and Sussman,
2009
). In fact,
M. fascicularis
is among
the most utilized species for medical research. This being so, it is surprising
and disappointing that there are relatively few detailed, intensive studies of
natural populations of long-tailed macaque ecology and behavior. These types
of studies have become exceedingly rare in recent years. Furthermore, no long-
term research field sites have been established in which identified individuals
have been followed over generations for this species.
Thus, there is little information available on the individual life histories of
long-tailed macaques, on demography of populations (see, however, Fuentes
et al
., Chapter 6), or on the variation in ecology and behavior of this spe-
cies. In a survey of Google Scholar, we found that of 102 recent papers listed
on long-tailed macaques, 84 percent were on medical research, 9 percent on
reconciliation or agonistic behavior, 6 percent on other social behavior, and
less than 1 percent on ecology or conservation. In 425 papers that referred
to
Macaca fascicularis
in Primate Lit of the Primate Info Net maintained by
the Wisconsin Primate Research Center (WPRC) Library at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison over the past six months, only twelve were primary refer-
ences on behavior or ecology (and five of these were abstracts). Of these, ten
were papers on behavior in captive animals and only two related to ecology.
Research on the natural history, ecology, behavior, or long-term status of popu-
lations in natural habitats related to long-tailed macaque adaptations or adapt-
ability have become essentially non-existent.
