Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
scenario by which these types of questions can be readily investigated in
natural settings.
No work to date has explored the influence of human activity on the evolu-
tion of synanthropic macaques. Given the speed in generation time that evo-
lution appears to be able to act on temperaments in other mammals when
artificially selected, it is plausible that such evolutionary forces might play
a significant selective role in the behavioral evolution of macaques natur-
ally interfacing with people. Species like long-tailed macaques may be in
an evolutionary relationship with humans similar to what some experts sug-
gest canines underwent. Evidence supports that the domestic dogs appear to
be more temperamentally aligned with people and better adapted to human
signals than wolves (Hare and Tomasello,
2005
) (although there is dispute,
see Udell
et al
., 2008 and Hare
et al
., 2010 for discussion). These adapta-
tions seem associated with innate components affecting the time frame and
receptivity for development of understanding human communication (Riedel
et al
.,
2008
; Dorey
et al
., 2010), and may result from the selection pressures
exerted on them across their historical relationship with people (Coppinger
and Coppinger,
2001
).
Research on how human influence affects the evolution of macaque behavior
might uncover relationships between the evolutionary impact of the local com-
munity's cultural practices on macaque reproductive biology and the intensity
of conflict. For example, it is worth investigating whether the high level of
feeding at tourist temple sites in Thailand and Bali, as well as the restrictions
on harming macaques at these sites, may allow the most aggressive animals
a reproductive advantage. Is it possible that the way the humans relate to the
macaques at these temples allow highly aggressive animals to outcompete
other macaques at clumped feedings, thus reproducing better and increasing
the population of animals with aggressive/despotic temperaments? This might
occur because the most aggressive animals will get more food from human
sources without facing the selective pressure of being killed by humans when
they become too aggressive, because they are specially protected at the temple.
This is plausible, as it has been shown in a few studies that macaques face more
violence from humans outside of temple areas than on the immediate protected
grounds (Schillaci
et al
.,
2010
; Aggimarangsee, 1991).
Interfaces at Balinese temples are reported to have very significant levels
of aggressive contact against people (Fuentes,
2006a
). In contrast, macaque-
to-human aggressive contact is much rarer in Singapore, and their interface is
considered the most benign in Southeast Asia (Fuentes
et al
.,
2008
; Sha
et al
.,
2009a
). One difference is that, at the tourist temple sites, macaques get far more
human food resources (e.g., predictable mass feeding of large quantities of food
every day), and thus there are much higher levels of contest competition over
