The Monkey's Tale: Taiwan's Other Primate

Looking back to 1989, when the Wildlife Conservation Law was enacted, the very survival of the Formosan rock monkey was under threat, as reports of the time attest. A survey of game restaurants by biology professor Wang Ying of National Taiwan Normal University showed that every year in Taiwan at least 3000 monkeys were served up as food, and consumption of other monkey products was also considerable. At the time, in Taipei City one could still buy ashtrays made from monkey heads. Earlier reports by Americans who came to Taiwan in search of laboratory animals to take the place of rhesus monkeys had also shown that Formosan rock monkey numbers were at a dangerously low ebb. Hence when the law was enacted, the Formosan rock monkey naturally took its place on the list of protected species.

But over the last decade or so, monkey conservation efforts have been accompanied by a stream of unhappy tales of conflicts between humans and simians. In particular, reports of monkeys invading and pillaging orchards have come from all over Taiwan. Farmers in Erhshui, Changhua County, even organized a "monkey defense brigade" specially to see off the furry thieves. At scenic locations everywhere, from lower-elevation spots like Kaohsiung's Mt. Chai and Taipei's Yangming Mountains to the heights of Yushan National Park, the chances of seeing monkeys at close quarters have increased, but there have also been many reports of visitors being clawed by monkeys, leading to heightened tension in man-monkey relations. In response, the COA has not only published materials to teach farmers how to drive away monkeys, but has relaxed the Wildlife Conservation Law to give counties and cities more powers to deal with wild animals that injure humans or create other problems.

Monkey business

In addition to humans, there are well over 200 other primate species worldwide. Unable to compete against the onslaught of land development and habitat destruction by mankind, most have been backed into corners and face a crisis of survival. Among them, the macaques are a large group of species (genus Macaca) found in many parts of Asia and some parts of Africa. The long-tailed Formosan rock monkey (a.k.a. the Formosan macaque), Taiwan's only non-human primate, is classified by most zoologists as an endemic species, Macaca cyclopsis.

During the course of evolution, the ice ages limited the spread of primate populations, but macaques' ability to colonize new territory should not be underestimated. Associate Professor Wu Hai-yin of the Graduate Institute of Nature Resources at National Dong Hwa University notes that recently at conferences on primates, experts from many countries have reported noticing that in their conflict with mankind some highly adaptable monkeys, including macaques in Thailand, Indonesia and China, and a few species of African savannah-living monkeys, have learned to survive in various new ecological niches, and have often become the objects of human hostility. For instance, Japanese fruit farmers have to surround their orchards with electric fences to keep out Japanese macaques (a.k.a. snow monkeys). This has become a new topic in primate conservation.

Of all the wild animals in Taiwan's mountain forests, the highly tenacious Formosan rock monkey has the best learning ability. The monkeys are thought to have the intelligence of a three- to four-year-old human child, and a complex and sensitive personality. Over the years the fruit farmers of Erhshui have tried all kinds of strategies to deal with them, from dogs, to firecrackers, to traps. But the monkeys have never been deterred. They always test out the farmers' latest tricks, and in the end they always manage to get their hands on the heavy bunches of longans on the trees.

Mothers and sisters

The domain of the Formosan rock monkeys once extended from the plains all the way up to around 3000 meters. The monkeys live in social groups ruled by a dominant male. Depending on differences in environment and food availability, each troupe may have anything from a dozen to 70 members.

The size of a troupe's range also varies according to food and climatic conditions, but is generally around 100 hectares. Wu Hai-yin observes that healthy monkeys have a strong urge to explore. They move about in three-dimensional space, selecting different foods and play sites at will, and thus maintain their quality of life.

Formosan rock monkeys have an average lifespan of over 20 years. They begin their three-month mating season in October, and give birth from April on. Newborn macaques cling tightly to their mothers' chests day and night, but after three to four months they become bolder and begin to climb nimbly about all over their mothers' bodies. When they reach a year old, the little monkeys' curiosity overcomes their fear and they often play adventurously outside the troupe.

Male monkeys enter puberty after the age of four. Adventurousness and curiosity call them to leave their homes and try to entice away the troupes of aging dominant males.

Females reach "marriageable" age at five years. Five to six years is also the time after which a dominant male is ready to retire and be replaced by a new troupe leader, and in this way inbreeding is avoided. In a macaque clan there is a continuous turnover of males, but most females stay with the same troupe all their lives, so the monkeys are said to have a matriarchal social organization. The females of a troupe are mostly blood relatives: mothers, daughters and sisters.

EQ matters

The dominant male of a macaque troupe not only enjoys the favors of his harem. He is also constantly waited on by lower-ranking males, who groom his coat and submit to the chastisements he doles out with teeth and claws. When they see the dominant male they immediately adopt a submissive pose and keep a respectful distance.

But as clan patriarch, the dominant male does not rely only on his macho physical prowess to keep his wives and concubines in thrall. Other more complex and intricate behaviors maintain his position as leader. A monkey can't be in two places at once, so the dominant male inevitably has to concentrate on some things to the neglect of others. But he uses some impressive techniques to underpin his leadership status. For instance, he makes sure to stay on the best of terms with the high-ranking females of his troupe, and in return his army of concubines actively drive away any male interlopers who come looking for some action on the side. The ratio of males to females in a troupe is generally around one to three, and the dominant male will deliberately "bribe" lower-ranking males-by occasionally allowing them to overstep the bounds of propriety with female troupe members-so that they will chase off outsiders on his behalf. At Mt. Chai, biologists from National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) observed how an elderly male with only one hand, although not particularly large or ferocious, was able to maintain his dominant status unchallenged, showing clearly that it takes more than just brawn to be top monkey.

Macaques have a high degree of social awareness and a close-knit family life. When two macaque clans meet at the borders of their territories, they may clash over food or other matters. When mother macaques are resting or feeding, low-ranking males will together form a circular "creche" in which young monkeys can play. Chan Shu-hui of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, who has observed these macaque child-minding activities, says that through such behavior the males show their value to the community, and try to win favor with females. Through the combined efforts of the clan, four young monkeys out of five manage to grow up safely despite the perils of the natural world.

Apart from sleeping and feeding, macaques spend time every day "socializing" with other clan members, in order to maintain their close group bonding. As a troupe grows larger, individuals can no longer maintain direct contacts with all the other members. Relationships may grow more distant, and cliques may form that may eventually split off to form their own troupes.

Monkey heaven?

Formosan rock monkeys show a high degree of group solidarity, breed prolifically, and are intelligent and adaptable. These are often cited as reasons why monkey populations in national parks and wildlife refuges have recovered since the Wildlife Conservation Law was implemented. But has the number of monkeys really increased?

"In fact, even before the law was enacted there were already conflicts between humans and monkeys over agricultural land," says Chang Shih-wei, an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute, who tries to "defuse" conflicts between farmers and monkeys. Chang quotes the example of central Taiwan, where complaints of monkey problems are commonest. In the past, he explains, almost all the less mountainous land was under cultivation. But in recent years much land in mountain areas has been left fallow, and as the rural population has drained away to the cities, farmers are no longer willing to devote additional manpower to guarding their orchards. As a result, their ability to keep the monkeys at bay has diminished. This is why the macaques have gained the upper hand in the orchards.

"You can't just blame the monkeys," avers Chang, who instructs farmers on simian "pest" control. He says that for many years foresters who lease state-owned woodland, instead of planting forest trees as they are supposed to, have planted large numbers of fruit trees, which increases the chances of "theft" by monkeys.

"The natural environment is always changing. Even if the number of monkeys has been increasing in the short term, there are so many uncertain factors that it is very hard to say that their populations will grow in the long term." Wu Hai-yin is the first biologist to have written a doctoral thesis about Formosan rock monkeys. In the 1980s, she spent five years trekking around the coral rocks of Kenting, observing a local troupe of macaques. During that time their numbers gradually increased, but then suddenly almost the entire troupe was killed by hunters, and the population growth accumulated over many years was wiped out overnight. By the time Wu had finished writing up her thesis, the few survivors had disappeared among the windswept coral.

Even today, after many years of conservation work, "the level of hunting has not been reduced." So says Lin Yu-ju, secretary of the Pingtung Rescue Center for Endangered Wild Animals. She states that a large proportion of the 200-plus macaques at the center have lost limbs due to being caught in traps.

Highly vulnerable

"No one can just go up into the mountains and expect to run into rock monkeys without looking for them. Their populations aren't that dense!" Associate professor Hsu Chih-min of NSYSU biology department, who was a member of the macaque population survey team, says that based on her own observations in the Kaohsiung area, she does not think monkey populations have grown. For example, because of large-scale feeding by tourists, the dozen or so monkey troupes on Mt. Chai, which has the densest macaque population, appear to have everything they need. "Superficially, it's true that 100 to 200 young monkeys are born on Mt. Chai each year. But with tourists competing to feed the monkeys, and the monkeys rushing to grab the food, fights often break out. The young monkeys get frightened, and their death rate is higher than in wild populations. There's also been an abnormal increase in premature births and miscarriages among the female monkeys." Hsu explains with frustration that the laying of footpaths all over Mt. Chai, and private individuals setting up their own tea drinking and game playing spots there, have also put pressure on the monkeys' habitat.

Since the conservation law came into force, the old threats to the monkeys have not disappeared, but new threats have arisen. "When the Central Cross-island Highway was first built, the monkeys would hide when they saw vehicles coming. But now when a car approaches they come rushing out." Wu Hai-yin says that because visitors feed the monkeys, they go crazy when people arrive. They have lost their former fear of man, and this causes people to mistakenly believe that there are monkeys everywhere.

When humans seeking close encounters with monkeys fail to obey the "rules" of monkey watching, but instead feed monkeys, tease them, or turn their backs and run away from them, mutual misunderstandings may occur that lead to tourists being clawed or chased, and also to monkeys being attacked.

Based on his observations at Fushan in Ilan County, Chang Ke-yang, a postgraduate zoology student at National Taiwan University, says: "The macaques at Fushan have to spend six hours a day looking for food. They feed on over 90 plant species, eating everything from roots, stems, leaves and shoots to fruits and nuts, and they even catch and eat large numbers of slug caterpillars. They really do make comprehensive use of the natural resources available to them." But when humans feed monkeys, most only give them a small variety of fruits, such as bananas. This is worrying not only because of the effects of an unbalanced diet on the monkeys themselves, but also because the change in wild monkeys' feeding habits may also affect the ecology of the local flora.

Flexible approaches

The figure of 250,000 quoted for Taiwan's monkey population "doesn't mean very much of itself," says Wu Hai-yin, who took part in the population survey. "What is more important is the different figures that make up that total, which can be used as a basis for monitoring population changes." She says the basic survey of monkey populations is just the first step. Later, researchers need to go on to tease out the numbers of monkeys and their situation in various regions, to enable conservation measures to be tailored to local conditions in each area.

Successful conservation cannot be achieved with a one-size-fits-all approach, because each location is different in terms of hunting pressure, degree of development, natural conditions such as climate and vegetation, and even the local cultural background. Therefore it is necessary to devise different conservation measures for each. "Where do monkeys need protection? Where can 'monkey watching' be allowed, in order to educate people about monkeys and help them learn to coexist with them? In which areas is there a need for reasonable 'control' of monkey damage to agriculture? And where monkeys do damage crops, do we really need to drive them all out, or kill them? Or can we share the bounty of nature with them, to allow humans and monkeys to coexist in a balanced way, with the government giving compensation to farmers? Where monkeys are numerous, how should they be managed? Where they are rare, how should they be conserved?" Wu Hai-yin stresses that detailed and specialized resource management is crucial to whether conservation work in Taiwan can progress to new levels.

In the new century, the relationship between monkeys and men has changed, and conservation has also entered new realms. How should humans deal with the complex relationship between man and monkey? How we respond will show whether humankind really is the "crown of creation."

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Who's that hiding behind a tree trunk? It's a Formosan rock monkey, the earliest primate to arrive in Taiwan.

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On Mt. Chai, humans and monkeys enjoy the shade together without disturbing each other. Not feeding or teasing the monkeys are basic rules of "monkey watching."

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Can you believe it? Before the Wildlife Conservation Law was passed, every year at least 3000 Formosan rock monkeys were sacrificed on the altar of Taiwanese gastronomy, and even today some people still hunt monkeys in the mountains. (photo by Vincent Chang)

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The monkeys that munch on leaves in the green trees are natural-born explorers. It is only in the wild that one can see such healthy individuals with their luxuriant fur and agile limbs. (photo by Diago Chiu)