Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Some species of macaques and humans extensively overlap geographically
and this is because of similar evolutionary histories and common physiolo-
gies between genera. Both genera have ancestors branching out of Africa and
the Mediterranean basin around two million years ago that spread into South
and Southeast Asia, with equal success (Hart and Sussman, 2008), indicating
that during this time macaques and humans were facing similar ecological
pressures. Both of these lineages had more success than other primate spe-
cies lineage over the last two million years, and this has been especially
so in Asia, where we find the largest populations of humans and macaques
(i.e., particularly rhesus and long-tailed). Some of the similar features we
share with macaques include generalized anatomies, flexible social systems,
relatively simple guts, and great dietary and ecological plasticity (Hart and
Sussman, 2008). These features have all led to the ecological success of
humans and macaques and have also allowed for macaques and humans to
overlap in many regions of Asia. In India, the species that most excels in this
overlap is
Macaca mulatta
and over most of Southeast Asia, it is
Macaca
fascicularis
. Long-tailed macaques have likely lived near humans for thou-
sands of years, and evidence shows that from well over 20,000 years ago in
Niah Cave, Sarawak, there was an interface between humans and
Macaca
fascicularis
(Harrison,
1996
). Given this history, it is likely we have had a
sufficiently long relationship with syanthropic macaques to have potentially
impacted their evolution.
In this section, we provide an overview of research needs for understanding
the interface between long-tailed macaques and humans and explore ways to
study how humans and macaques impact each other. We present two approaches
to studying the relationship. We summarize the
ethnoprimatological approach
and introduce a new perspective we have termed the
evolutionary biological
approach
. We highlight important contributions that both approaches could
have on future research on human-macaque sympatry, and suggest ways for
investigating the proximate and evolutionary impacts of humans and macaques
on each other.
The ethnoprimatological approach
There are two major ways primatologists have approached the study of human-
macaque overlap. First, traditional socioecological models in primatology have
focused on female distribution, patterns of competition, predation, resource
availability, and the structure of the local ecology (van Schaik,
1989
; Strier,
2006
; Sterk
et al
.,
1997
). In these models anthropogenic processes affecting
human-primate interfaces can potentially impact all of these factors. Therefore,
