Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
historical translocation efforts to remove the macaques as these settlements
developed. Two such cases occur in Kalimantan on Lampahen Island in the
Little Kapuas River of Central Kalimantan and Kembang Island in the Barito
River of South Kalimantan (Mackinnon
et al
.,
1996
; Gumert,
2004
). Local
legends portray these macaques as the spirits descended from corrupted
humans that were abandoned to these islands for bad behavior. According
to this folklore, they bring good fortune to the local community if treated
kindly. Kembang Island is a tourist location for travelers to Banjarmasin, but
it is not commercialized like some of the Thailand or Bali temple locations.
People that visit the island provide food to the macaques, which mob the
food bearers and assertively take their food (Gumert, per. obs.), and will also
chase people onto docked boats in search of food (Southwick, per comm.).
Lampahen Island, on the other hand, is not influenced from tourism and thus
modern tourism has not disrupted a traditional macaque-human sympatry.
The human interaction that the monkeys receive occurs with the local com-
munity. They provide offerings of food to the monkeys after times of good
fortune and leave ceremonial flags on the island for each offering they pro-
vide (Gumert,
2004
) (
Figure 1.5
).
Human settlements
Long-tailed macaques interface with people along and within human settle-
ments, including villages, towns, and even metropolitan cities. Macaques can
be found free-ranging in urban settings, such as Singapore (Fuentes
et al
.,
2008
; Jones-Engel
et al
.,
2006
; Lee and Chan, see Box 12.2; Sha
et al
.,
2009a
;
Sha
et al
.,
2009b
), Hong Kong (Fellowes,
1992
; Southwick and Southwick,
1983
; Wong,
1994
; Wong and Ni,
2000
), and Kuala Lumpur (Chiew,
2007
; Di
Silva,
2008
; Twigg and Nijmin,
2008
; Zain
et al
., Chapter 4). Smaller towns in
Thailand, such as Loburi and Petchaburi have macaques that inhabit the down-
town regions and walk along the streets as freely as the people living there
(Malaivijitnond
et al
.,
2005
; Malaivijitnond and Hamada,
2008
; Malavijitnond
et al
., Chapter 5). Numerous towns and villages across Southeast Asia have
macaques living on their fringes and thus experience varying levels of inter-
face with them. These situations present threats to humans and macaques
and in some villages, such as Alas Dowo in Jawa Tengah, Indonesia, a
local macaque pet owner reported very recent disappearance of long-tailed
macaques in the area over the last decade. In addition, villages such as Anjir
in Kalimantan Tengah have recently initiated systematic trapping efforts to
remove macaques from their farmlands (Gumert, per. obs.). Such reports raise
the question of whether macaques interfacing with farm-based villages are
