Biography
Biography: Joshua Powell
Abstract
This review provides a global assessment of human interaction with the most widely distributed genus of non-human primate (NHP), the macaque (Genus: Macaca), with a focus on macaque-human interaction, societal perceptions of macaques, and the management of the macaque-human interface. Rates of macaque-human interaction are high, but vary substantially between locations. Several factors are correlated with aggressive interaction, key being that rates of aggressive interaction increase in the presence of food triggers and thus enforcement of feeding bans is essential to reducing rates of aggressive macaque-human interaction. Other management strategies used vary, but few techniques are effective at excluding macaques permanently on a large scale, except for lethal control and long-distance translocation, both with severe limitations. A suite of techniques therefore needs to be employed to manage macaque-human interaction in order to minimise human-macaque conflict, which is shown to be of societal importance and to pose a conservation threat for macaques, especially when concurrent with primary threats, such as habitat loss or human harvesting. Societal perceptions of macaques matter because they shape choice of management strategies, but even positive local perceptions may be undermined by repeat interactions involving personal loss or damage. Substantial data absences exist in the global literature; the standard collection of basic interaction data is recommended for all studies working with macaque-human interaction and a list of data to report is suggested. Six key locations for further research are identified: Morocco and Algeria, Taiwan, South-eastern Tibet (North-east India and South-west China), Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, and Myanmar (Burma)