Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
yet to be mirrored by a similar level of interest or support to the issues facing
their natural populations.
Long-tailed macaques have several negative impacts on humans. Macaques
compete with humans for food and space, becoming crop-raiders and urban
pests, and can be threatening to humans in their proximity. Macaques can
parasitize human resources, damage dwellings, and access refuse, causing the
spread of debris within a community (Zain
et al
., Chapter 4). They also occa-
sionally threaten or cause harm to humans by acting aggressively. Aggressive
macaque-to-human behavior is mainly the result of direct competition over
contestable food sources (Fuentes
2006
; Fuentes and Gamerl,
2005
; Fuentes
et al
.,
2008
; Sha
et al
.,
2009b
; Wheatly and Putra, 1994a), but can also occur
due to human prompting (i.e., teasing, chasing, approaching to close, etc.),
defense of young, and interference with mating activity (McCarthy
et al
.,
2009
; Gumert
et al
.,
2009
). A potential negative consequence is the spread
of infections, which has become a special concern because of the close bio-
logical similarity of macaques and humans (Brown,
1997
; Jones-Engel
et al
.,
Chapter 12).
Human populations significantly affect macaques in negative ways. Human-
caused habitat alteration can attract macaques to human settlements and
humans are highly interested in feeding macaques, which cause behavioral
changes in them. Human-fed macaques learn over time to venture further into
human settlement and lose their fear of being in close proximity and contact
of people (i.e., loss of flight distance). Sustained feeding by humans can also
alter the reproductive success of macaques, by lowering infant and juvenile
mortality and thus increasing population growth (Fuentes
et al
., Chapter 6).
In contrast, humans can also limit population growth because they are dan-
gerous to macaques and can harm or kill them through their activity. Humans
directly affect the mortality of macaques by hunting, trapping (Louden
et al
.,
2006
), culling, and removal of macaques (Di Silva,
2008
; Sha
et al
.,
2009a
,
2009b
; Wheatley and Putra,
1994a
), and indirectly through human activity
and edifices, such as automobile traffic, (Wong,
1994
), electrical wiring,
and water tanks. Lastly, contraction of infectious agents by macaques due
to human activity, can cause disease, fatality (Jones-Engel
et al
.,
2006
) and
population collapse (Wheatley,
1999
, in this case transmitted from human-
kept livestock).
Areas of macaque-human interface range from highly competitive to mutualis-
tic. In regions of great competition, human-macaque conflict is very high causing
stress to both species, and generating the general sense that solutions are needed
to ameliorate the situation. Consequently, strategies and management plans need
to be developed and enacted in order to remedy some of the problems occurring
in human-macaque interface zones throughout Southeast Asia. Moreover, effort
