Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 12.2 Lessons and challenges in the management of
long-tailed macaques in urban Singapore
Benjamin P. Y-H. Lee and Sharon Chan
Introduction
It is estimated that more than 50 percent of the world's human population
now reside in large urban centers (United Nations,
2008
) and Singapore is
no exception, a compact island city-state with an area of about 700 sq. km
but housing some 5 million people. Such a phenomenal population growth
since its founding as a shipping port by the British in 1819 has taken a heavy
toll on its natural environment and biodiversity (Corlett,
1992
; Brook
et al
.,
2003
). Urbanization represents a major threat to wildlife, as this process
both reduces natural habitat and causes fragmentation (McKinney,
2006
)
and also brings people in much closer contact with wildlife.
There are documented human-wildlife conflicts in Singapore involv-
ing nonprimate wildlife such as pythons (Lee and Chong,
2006
) and birds
(Sodhi and Sharp,
2006
) but the single most common human-wildlife con-
flict that invariably makes the headlines involves the long-tailed macaque
(
Macaca fascicularis
) (see Murdoch,
2007
; Sua,
2007
; Neo,
2010
). This
species of macaque, first described and named by the founder of modern
Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles (
1821
), has persisted till today, and is the
largest and most common wild mammal in Singapore.
Before 2000, the wild population of long-tailed macaques, particularly
those at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR), contributed much to our
understanding of the ecology of the tropical rain forest with respect to seed
dispersal and forest phenology (see Corlett and Lucas,
1990
; Lucas and
Corlett,
1991
; Lucas and Corlett,
1992
; Lucas and Corlett,
1998
). Recent
research on Singapore's long-tailed macaques has focused on disease trans-
mission risk (Jones-Engel
et al
.,
2006
, Jones-Engel
et al
.,
2007
), human-
macaque interactions (Fuentes
et al
.,
2008
; Sha
et al
.,
2009a
,
2009b
) and
morphological variation (Schillaci
et al
.,
2007
). All these studies contributed
immensely to understanding the ecology and taxonomy of this species.
In modern Singapore, the conflict arising from the human-macaque inter-
face usually stems from food provisioning, both intentional and uninten-
tional, and also intolerance, and an irrational fear of macaques. The areas
with the most severe conflicts usually involve residential areas in the vicin-
ity of the forested nature reserves, as the long-tailed macaques favor forest
edges (Sha
et al
.,
2009a
). It is worth noting that human-macaque conflict
in Singapore is not a recent phenomenon but started sometime in the early
