Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10.1.
Summary of Ngeaur macaque population
Reference and
Year
Estimated
Population Size,
Individuals
Number of
Troops
Average
Troop Size
Number of
Macaques Shot
or Trapped
1973
1
480-600
>7
40-50
1981
2
825-900
15-20
52
94
1986
3
66
1987
4
10-20
70
1994
5
350-400
27
11
3
1999
600-700
83
1
see Poirier and Smith,
1974
;
2
Farslow,
1987
;
3
Kawamoto,
et. al
., 1988;
4
Matsubayashi,
et.al
.,
1989
;
5
Wheatley,
et. al
., 1999b;
6
Marsh-Kautz and Singeo,
1999
.
estimates using this method was therefore 401 individuals. Another method
that we used was to take the estimated number of troops that were detected
during our survey, 27, and the total number of individuals per troop, about thir-
teen individuals at the 99 percent confidence interval about the mean that we
counted before the macaques detected us to give us an estimated 344 individ-
uals. We concluded that our survey estimated about 400 macaques on Ngeaur
which is considerably more than the 150 estimated people that reside on the
island (Marsh-Kautz and Wheatley,
2004
) (
Table 10.1
).
Another conclusion from our 1994 study (Wheatley
et al
.,
1999b
) was that
human hunting had a different effect on the macaques than non-human preda-
tors had on the macaques reported elsewhere. We found no significant cor-
relation between the total number of animals in the troop and the detection
distance. Larger troop sizes did not seem to avoid predators better. Not only
were there fewer macaques per troop, but also, there were twice as many troops
as reported since Farslow's (
1987
) and Matsubayashi's
et al
. (1989) studies
(
Table 10.1
). Our interviews of hunters found that they preferred to hunt lar-
ger sized troops because they were more successful.
Table 10.1
also lists the
number of macaques shot or trapped on Ngeaur during the studies listed; three
macaques were shot during our study (Wheatley
et al
.,
1999b
). Natural selec-
tion appears to favor smaller-sized troops and quieter animals since Poirier and
Smith's
1974
study.
A number of local people on Ngeaur that we interviewed in 1994 were con-
temptuous of monkeys. Some people hated them and wanted them killed. “We
hunt monkeys because they are bad,” they would say, or “everything mon-
keys do is bad.” In general, however, most people probably leave the macaques
alone as Poirier and Farslow (
1984
) mentioned. Poirier and Smith (
1974
) even
