TODAY
Tiresome monkey business
05:55 AM Jan 16, 2010
by Neo Chai Chin
SINGAPORE - The number of complaints about monkeys has gone up significantly, averaging about 250 yearly in 2007 to 611 last year.
While culling is a quick fix, it is not the solution, said experts on Friday at Asia for Animals conference hosted by the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres).
They called for greater collaboration among non-governmental organisations, governments and citizens to create co-existence rather than conflict.
Last year, the complaints resulted in 127 monkeys being impounded by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), with most of the trapped monkeys getting euthanised.
But humans and monkeys can live in the same community, said anthropologist Agustin Fuentes of the United States' University of Notre Dame.
Man-modified environments can limit the spaces in which macaques can move, and one way to reduce conflicts is to create green spaces for the monkeys to "get away from humans", said Dr Fuentes at a workshop about managing human-macaque interactions.
In urbanised Singapore, this means having connections between parks and other green areas, instead of an isolated park among buildings. "When macaques are forced to move across buildings or through densely human-inhabited areas, you have an increase in conflicts," he said.
Another "core" strategy in managing conflicts is for the public not to feed the monkeys.
Macaques - with their broad diets and flexible, dynamic social systems like humans - are found across South-east Asia, as well as in places like Hong Kong.
Shatin, in Hong Kong's New Territories, is a macaque-human hotspot and an example of how progress can be made in managing macaques.
The government has deployed measures such as demonstrating monkey-handling techniques to educate the public, and introducing a neutering and contraceptive programme to manage the macaque population.
The number of complaints dipped from over 800 in 2007, to about 250 last year, according to numbers from Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Acres executive director Louis Ng believes Singapore can find similar solutions, and do away with culling. "Ultimately it's not a macaque problem, it's a human problem - the way we react to macaques," he said.
In 2007, Singapore's National Parks Board did a pilot study to test the effectiveness of sterilisation in two troops of monkeys.
The study showed sterilisation is a "recommendable alternative to culling", said Ms Barbara Martelli of the non-profit organisation Philozoophie, which conducted the pilot study. Neo Chai Chin
