Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Positioning System), ethnicity of residents, habitat conditions, impacts on
wildlife (hunting, consumption, and trading), conflicts between humans and
primates, and the local names of primates. In protected areas, we interviewed
forest rangers and staff about species diversity, numbers of troops, habitat con-
ditions, and the range of forest protection law. The interview survey form is
presented in
Appendix 2.1
.
Pet observation
During the interview survey, we actively inquired about the location of pet
long-tailed macaques in each village. After locating pets, we interviewed the
pet owners about the origin of the monkey, the hunting method used to cap-
ture the pet, how they obtained the monkey, the price of the monkey, and the
route of trade. We observed their morphological characteristics and assessed
if there was any evidence of hybrid characteristics (i.e., interspecies or
intersubspecies), based on descriptions from Fooden (
1995
).
Field survey
The region of the field survey ranged from 12˚27' N to 17˚17'N and from
95˚14' E to 99˚06'E in southern Myanmar, and covered mangrove forests and
isolated limestone mountains which free-ranging and habituated troops of
long-tailed macaque were known to inhabit. We observed and classified the
Macaca fascicularis aurea
subspecies by their morphological traits, that is,
infrazygomatic pattern of cheek hairs and no hair-crest at the vertex of the head
(Fooden,
1995
). Individuals were classified into sex and age classes based on
their morphological characteristics and population sizes were counted by dir-
ect observation. The background history of the troop and condition of the habi-
tat were recorded by interviews with local residents, mostly from the monks
living at the monasteries.
Population estimation
We estimated the population of long-tailed macaques in Myanmar using sev-
eral assumptions to assess each habitat region. In the Mon and Kayin States
of the northern part of Tanintharyi region, long-tailed macaques troops were
found in isolated mountains. The minimum estimation was made by multi-
plying the number of troops by an average size of 30, which is an average
