Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Future directions for research
and conservation of long-tailed
macaque populations
M i c h a e l D . G u m e r t, A g u s t í n F u e n t e s ,
Gregory Engel and Lisa Jones-Engel
Long-tailed macaques are an edge species, preferring to live along the forest
borders of many habitat types (Gumert, Chapter 1). The result of this prefer-
ence is that long-tailed macaques are adaptable generalists that are frequently
found along the edges of human settlements across Southeast Asia. Another
consequence is that long-tailed macaques can adjust quickly to living with
other species, and thus have commonly expanded beyond the edge to overlap
with humans in numerous contexts (see Part II). Due to the close association
with humans, macaque populations can be powerfully impacted by human
activity. In some cases they have been carried and introduced to areas beyond
their normal range (see Part III). The overlap of macaques and humans, and the
consequences of this overlap, needs to be better understood. While the basis of
our relationship with long-tailed macaques is becoming apparent, much more
research will be needed to fully understand their population and the causes
and consequences of our interface with them. This chapter is an attempt to
focus future research in a few important areas that will be necessary for better
understanding the population, ecology, and synanthropic nature of long-tailed
macaques. This chapter focuses on three subject areas that warrant special
consideration for future scientific research on
M. fascicularis
: population-level
research, the issue of ethnophoresy and introduced populations, and the causes
and consequences of human-macaque overlap.
Directions for population-level research
Long-tailed macaques perhaps have the greatest amount of intraspecific vari-
ation of any primate species (Fooden,
2006
). The large variation is not yet well
