Moor macaque

The Moor macaque made its first appearance in western science through the work of Heinrich Rudolf Schinz in 1825.[10] Not much is known of the origin of this specie's name due to it being endemic to Indonesia and due to its endangered state. The word “macaque” stems from the Portuguese word macaco(a) which in return stems from the West African language word (ma)Kaku, which translates to monkey.[11] The origins of “moor” are more obscure and unknown. A Moor macaque is defined as a large gray-legged black macaque of Sulawesi.[12] The key word in that definition is “black”. The word “moor” is defined as black or dark and the latter is a reference to the Moors, a group of people that originate from Northern Africa.[13]

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi hosts 7 species of macaques with one of them being the Moor macaque. Unfortunately, the Moor macaque is endemic to the island and is considered to be endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Moor macaque is the only species of macaques that existed naturally in South Sulawesi. They can be found in lowland forests, grasslands, limestone areas and even near humans habitations.[14] Those living near humans have been observed to be more present in areas where domestic animals are found, as these areas do not have a lot of traps that endanger them.[8] They are predominantly found in the karst forest ecosystem of South Sulawesi. The karst plain forest is more resourceful for these macaques as the latter contains an abundance of food. Researchers discovered that out of the 107 identified tree species, 74 of them were vital macaque food species with the remaining being food species of secondary importance.[8] The latter information was put together due to a study that took place in the Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park and specifically in the Karaenta area, a former nature reserve.The karst tower forest is less useful for the macaques in terms of acquiring food or other related resources but acts as a natural refuge from human disturbance. Another important area with significant Moor macaques is the Tabo-tabo forest in Pangkep and is considered to be a secondary forest area. The home range for primates is characterised by three factors; food availability, the distribution of the food, and the interval of changing fruit seasons.The Tabo-tabo forest is characterised as a secondary lowland forest and the latter created a suitable environment for the growth of plants on fertile alluvial and Mediterranean red soils.The high diversity of plants and shelter provision in the area made the land extremely suitable for these macaques to thrive.[14]

Moor macaques are a male dispersing species. Males leave the groups in which they are born between the ages of 7 and 9, while females stay in their birth groups. This has an important purpose, it avoids inbreeding and broadens the genetic pool of the groups.[3] Moor macaques groups have been observed to be tolerant and not very aggressive.[15] Group fission occurs in Moor macaques, competition between females for food does not seem to be the reason for fission.[16]

Due to anthropogenic activities, Moor Macaque interactions with humans have increased. Primates are often victims of such occurrences because they have a hard time adapting to environmental disturbances.[18] Due to their endemic status to the island of Sulawesi, most of their interactions used to be with the Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park staff and researchers who would feed them. Starting the year 2015, they started interacting with vehicles that would drive along a road located in their home range.[18] Based on the available research, human interaction damages the social networks of these macaques, and the latter is necessary for increase of infant survival, social ranking, reproductive success, and even enhanced thermoregulation during winter.[18]

The tourism industry, hunting, agriculture and logging are some of the big threats to the Moor macaques because they highly contribute to their habitat loss.[8] Even in areas that are under local protection, deforestation is still observed in many forests of the southern parts of the Sulawesi Island,[8] thus conservation of the population of Moor macaques should be a priority since its population is declining at a high rate. According to a study done on the effects of anthropogenic activities on the population of Moor macaques, the population density of Moor macaques is low outside of protected areas and support the study's hypothesis that the population of this species is declining in several regions, especially in the southern forests of the species’ geographic range. Furthermore, they found a high presence of anthropogenic activity in forests inhabited by Moor macaques, and a negative effect of the number of non species-specific hunting traps in the forest on macaque encounter rate.[8] In the National Park of Chamba District, South Sulawesi, there was an observed decrease in Moor macaques due to human settlement and road traffics which endanger the life of Moor macaques through food poisoning, and road accidents.

During a survey in South Sulawesi, there was a high encounter of Moor macaques in agroforests, where it was seen that Moor macaques like feeding on corn. This is a sign that different types of plantations can influence the distribution and encounter rate of Moor macaques.[8] This, with different interviews with local people inhabiting the area surveyed, combining a well conserved forest with small agricultural patches on landscape scape can have a positive effect on the conservation of Moor macaques. With other studies done on the effect of agroforests on the conservation of Moor macaques,[19][20][21] it has been observed that agroforests and forests cover can positively affect or increase the population of Moor macaques. Therefore, for better conservation and for the benefit of remnant subpopulations, forests in South Sulawesi Island should be protected and conserved. Raising awareness of the ecological importance of Moor macaques, and motivating people to conduct activities that are ecologically sustainable are also good actions towards the conservation of Moor macaques. While there are some studies done in South Sulawesi, more studies have to be conducted on other parts of the Island for an adequate conservation of this species.[8]

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• Photos at ARKive.