Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
previously mentioned, however, taro is of the highest priority to the local
women. They say taro is the mother of our life. Farslow (
1987
) reports damage
to the taro crops and betel nut to be the most serious problem and that most of
the damage was on the southern third of the island. Evidence of only one small
taro leaf was found eaten by a macaque during our study in 1994 (Wheatley
et al
.,
2002
) and this plant was one of about a thousand plants located under the
animal's sleeping tree in the swamp. Raw taro is generally considered inedible
as it is acrid and causes an intense burning and itching sensation. It is doubtful
that macaques eat much raw, mature taro. The young and newly planted taro is
at most risk because it is said to be sweet and tender without the itchy irritation
to the mouth.
Prevention of damage to taro is one of the highest concerns to the people
of Ngeaur and effective controls could focus on those crops mostly found
in the swamps. One informant mentioned that chickens actually do more
damage to taro than macaques because of the scratching around the plants.
Dogs are reportedly used on Ngeaur to chase macaques out of the gardens.
Another important crop that macaques are alleged to damage is betel nut.
Some local people stated that in some years, all of the betel, especially when
young was eaten by macaques. According to Farslow (
1987
) the macaques
receive the most hostility from the local people because the animals eat betel
nut. Ngeaur is famous for its high quality betel nut as far away as Yap and
Guam. It is considered a culturally valuable crop and increasingly, a profit-
able cash crop. Garden crops grown near houses such as corn, yams, tomato,
beans, watermelon, sugarcane and squash were not eaten by feral monkeys
during Farslow's (
1987
) study. In addition, he says that most of the crops such
as papaya and banana were inaccessible to the animals. At present, there are
no studies, besides that of Farslow (
1987
), that document the percentage of
agricultural foods or natural foods consumed by Ngeaur macaques. Two of the
favored foods of monkeys (Poirier and Smith,
1974
; Farslow,
1987
) were in
fruit during the time of our 1994 study: the Palauan apple,
Eugenia javanica
and the tropical almond,
Terminalia catappa
. Both of these species fruit sev-
eral times a year (Farslow,
1987
): thus there is a continual supply of food for
the animals in the forests.
Some of the other introduced species on Ngeaur also have a significant impact
on the socio-economy and the environment. Crombie and Pregill (
1999
) state
that they believe that
Rattus rattus
is a substantial predator of herpetofauna
and birds. Rats and starlings do more damage to crops than macaques accord-
ing to Farslow (
1987
). Rats were seen by Farslow (
1987
) chewing off large
pieces of cassava roots as well as eating all cultigens and fruits. Carter (2007)
identifies rats as the main predator on the endangered and endemic bird, the
Mauritius fody with macaques as the second major predator. The large, green
