Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
long-tailed macaques in Myanmar, the Tanintharyi and Rakhine regions, are
separated by the Ayeyarwady Delta and northern Tanintharyi regions. These
areas, which were previously mangrove and lowland forests around the estu-
aries of the Ayeyarwady, Sittaung and Thanlwin Rivers have been converted to
human settlements and this has likely impacted long-tailed macaque popula-
tions. In the northern Tanintharyi and eastern Ayeyarwady Delta regions, long-
tailed macaque habitats have been becoming degraded for the last 30 years.
Wide areas of land were converted to agricultural fields (rice paddy fields)
and human settlements, and forests were cut for timber, fuel and constructed
of the country's infrastructure. Thus, in these areas, the troops we found were
restricted to steep limestone mountains with temples. These populations appear
to be isolated from each other by human settlements, and this may be causing
there to be a higher ratio of males in some groups than is typical, such as in the
Bayin Nyi Naung Mountain troop, (1:1.2 of male and female ratio) (Aye Mi
San,
2007
). Male dispersal may now be restricted and therefore, the gene flow
between troops will be an important area for future research in Myanmar.
In the Ayeyarwady Delta, vast areas of mangrove forest have been destroyed
in the last 30 years by deforestation for the production of fuel wood and the
expansion of agriculture and aquaculture (Nay Win Oo, 2002). The annual
deforestation rate has been as high as 5.6 percent, and the total forest cover
declined from 24 percent of the total area in 1989 to 12 percent in 1998 (Oo,
1998
). The total decrease has been from 3,860 km
2
in the early 1900s, to 1,770
km
2
in the 1990s (Oo,
1998
). In our survey, two troops of wild long-tailed
macaques were identified in the Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary (area of
136 km
2
), which is protected by the Myanmar Wildlife Protection Law (1994),
and therefore long-tailed macaques appear restricted to protected areas in this
region of Myanmar.
There are misconceptions by the human inhabitants of macaque territory
that long-tailed macaques are quite resilient to the impact of human activities.
Since long-tailed macaques are easily noticed in temples and small, private
zoos, and since many forested areas are inhabited by some macaques, the wild
local long-tailed macaque population is thought to be large by the local people.
However, evidence we found suggests that the population has been reduced
over the last few decades by habitat degradation and hunting. Therefore, we
suggest that the risk of localized extinctions of populations may be rather
high.
The two major ranges of long-tailed macaques, the Rakhine and southern
Tanintharyi regions, have undergone significant environmental degradation. In
the Rakhine region, the forest cover was 62 percent in 1989, and the annual
deforestation rate was rather low at 2.6 percent (NCEA,
2006
), because there
were few big cities, road conditions were poor, and the coastal area of the
