Abstract
Large-scale expansion of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) monocultures across Southeast Asia are creating ecosystems with homogenous habitats with low species diversity. However, heterogeneity varies between oil palm smallholdings and large-scale plantations, with greater habitat heterogeneity found on smallholdings. To date, there has been a paucity of field research on primate species, particularly macaques in oil palm plantations. In this study, we investigate the group size of long-tailed macaques (Macacafascicularis) in four habitat types: unlogged forest, logged forest, large-scale oil palm plantations, and smallholdings. Field censuses were conducted in 2015 and 2016 to determine the group size of M. fascicularis in large-scale oil palm plantations and oil palm smallholdings. These data from oil palm plantations were compared to surveys conducted on a logged lowland forest reserve and a previous study in an unlogged lowland forest. We found that group size of M. fascicularis in large-scale plantations was lower compared to smallholdings, logged forest and unlogged forest. The chi-square test showed that the age class (juvenile or adult) of M. fascicularis was associated with farming systems. The paper concludes that the expansion of large-scale oil palm monocultures should be limited because of its adverse impacts on biodiversity including common species such as M. fascicularis.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Adila, N., Sasidhran, S., Kamarudin, N., Puan, C.I., Azhar, B., Lindenmayer, D.B., 2017. Effects of peat swamp logging and agricultural expansion on species richness of native mammals in Peninsular Malaysia. Basic Appl. Ecol. 22, 1–10.
Aldrich-Blake, F.P.G., 1980. Long-tailed macaques. In: Chivers, D.J. (Ed.), Malayan Forest Primates: Ten Years’ Study in Tropical Rain Forest. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 147–165.
Ancrenaz, M., Oram, F., Ambu, L., Lackman, I., Ahmad, E., Elahan, H., Kler, H., Abram, N.K., Meijaard, E., 2015. Of Pongo: palms and perceptions: a multidisciplinary assessment of Bornean orang-utans Pongo pygmaeus in oil palm context. Oryx 49, 465–472.
Anderson, J., Rowcliffe, J.M., Cowlishaw, G., 2007. Does the matrix matter? A forest primate in a complex agricultural landscape. Biol. Conserv. 135, 212–222.
Azhar, B., Lindenmayer, D.B., Wood, J., Fischer, J., Manning, A., McElhinny, C., Zakaria, M., 2011. The conservation value of oil palm plantation estates, smallholdings and logged peat swamp forest for birds. For. Ecol. Manage. 262, 2306–2315.
Azhar, B., Lindenmayer, D., Wood, J., Fischer, J., Manning, A., McElhinny, C., Zakaria, M., 2013. Contribution of illegal hunting, culling of pest species, road accidents and feral dogs to biodiversity loss in established oil-palm landscapes. Wildl. Res. 40, 1–9.
Azhar, B., Puan, C.L., Zakaria, M., Hassan, N., Arif, M., 2014. Effects of monoculture and polyculture practices in oil palm smallholdings on tropical farmland birds. Basic Appl. Ecol. 15, 336–346.
Azhar, B., Saadun, N., Puan, C.L., Kamarudin, N., Aziz, N., Nurhidayu, S., Fischer, J., 2015. Promoting landscape heterogeneity to improve the biodiversity benefits of certified palm oil production: evidence from Peninsular Malaysia. Glob. Ecol. Conserv. 3, 553–561.
Azhar, B., Saadun, N., Prideaux, M., Lindenmayer, D.B., 2017. The global palm oil sector must change to save biodiversity and improve food security in the tropics. J. Environ. Manage. 203, 457–466.
Bernard, H., Fjeldsá, J., Mohamed, M., 2009. A case study on the effects of disturbance and conversion of tropical lowland rain forest on the non-valant small mammals in North Borneo: management implications. Mammal Study 34, 85–96.
Bernstein, I.S., Balcaen, P., Dresdale, L., Gouzoules, H., Kavanagh, M., Patterson, T., Neymann-Warner, P., 1976. Differential effects of forest fragmentation on primate populations. Primates 17, 401–411.
Bhagwat, S.A., Willis, K.J., 2008. Agroforestry as a solution to the oil-palm debate. Conserv. Biol. 22, 1368–1369.
Brotcorne, F., Maslarov, C., Wandia, I.N., Fuentes, A., Beudels-Jamar, R.C., Huynen, M.C., 2014. The role of anthropic, ecological, and social factors in sleeping site choice by long-tailed Macaques (Macacafasaculans). Am. J. Primatol. 76, 1140–1150.
Chung, G.F., Lee, C.T., Chee, K.H., 2016. Pictorial Guide to Oil Palm Cultivation and Mammalian Pests. Agricultural Crop Trust, Malaysia.
Eudey, A.A., 2008. The crab-eating macaque (Macacafasaculans): widespread and rapidly declining. Primate Conserv. 23, 129–132.
Fittinghoff, NA, 1978. Macaca fasciculans of Eastern Borneo: Ecology, Demography, Social Behavior, and Social Organization in Relation to a Refuging Habitus. University Microfilms International, London.
Fitzherbert, E.B., Struebig, M.J., Morel, A., Danielson, F., Brühl, C.A., Donald, P.F., Phalan, B., 2008. How will oil palm expansion affect biodiversity? Trends Ecol. Evol. 23, 538–545.
Fuentes, A., Gamerl, S., 2005. Disproportionate participation by age/sex classes in aggressive interactions between long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasciculans) and human tourists at Padangtegal monkey forest, Bali, Indonesia. Am. J. Primatol. 66, 197–204.
Gallmetzer, N., Schulze, C.H., 2015. Impact of oil palm agriculture on understory amphibians and reptiles: a Mesoamerican perspective. Glob. Ecol. Conserv. 4, 95–109.
Gibson, L., 2011. Possible shift in macaque trophic level following a century of biodiversity loss in Singapore. Primates 52, 217–220.
Gillespie, G.R., Ahmad, E., Elahan, B., Evans, A., Ancrenaz, M., Goossens, B., Scroggie, M.P., 2012. Conservation of amphibians in Borneo: relative value of secondary tropical forest and non-forest habitats. Biol. Conserv. 152, 136–144.
Gumert, M.D., 2011. The Common Monkey of Southeast Asia: Longtailed Macaque Populations, Ethnophoresy, and Their Occurrence in Human Environments. Monkeys on the Edge: Ecology and Management of Long-tailed Macaques and Their Interface With Humans. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 3–44.
Hadi, I., Suryobroto, B., Perwitasari-Farajallah, D., 2007. Food preference of semi provisioned macaques based on feeding duration and foraging party size. Hayati J. Biosci. 14, 13–17.
Hamada, Y., Urasopon, N., Hadi, I., Malaivijitnond, S., 2006. Body size and proportions and pelage color of free-ranging Macaca mulatta from a zone of hybridization in northeastern Thailand. Int. J. Primatol. 27, 497–513.
Hoffmann, A.A., Sgrö, C.M., 2011. Climate change and evolutionary adaptation. Nature 470, 479–485.
Kamarul, H., Ahmad, I., Badrul-Munir, M.Z., Syaizwan, Z., Aainaa, A., 2014. Ranging behavior of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasciculans) at the entrance of Kuala Selangor Nature Park. Malays. Appl. Biol. 43, 129–142.
Karimullah, A.S., 2012. The dominant species of monkeys (Macaca fasciculans) in northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Pak. J. Zool. 44, 1567–1574.
Koh, L.P., Wilcove, D.S., 2008. Is oil palm agriculture really destroying tropical biodiversity? Conserv. Lett. 1, 60–64.
Laurance, W.F., Lovejoy, T.E., Vasconcelos, H.L., Bruna, E.M., Didham, R.K., Stouffer, P.C., Gascon, C., Bierregaard, R.O., Laurance, S.G., Sampaio, E., 2002. Ecosystem decay of Amazonian forest fragments: a 22-year investigation. Conserv. Biol. 16, 605–618.
Linder, J.M., 2013. African primate diversity threatened by New Waveöf industrial oil palm expansion. Afr. Primates 8, 25–38.
Linder, J.M., Palkovitz, R.E., 2016. The threat of industrial oil palm expansion to primates and their habitats. Ethnoprimatology, 21–45.
Malaivijitnond, S., Hamada, Y., 2008. Current situation and status of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasciculans) in Thailand. Nat. Hist. 8, 185–204.
Marshall, A.J., 2010. Effect of habitat quality on primate populations in Kalimantan: gibbons and leaf monkeys as case studies. In: Indonesian Primates. Springer, New York, NY, pp. 157–177.
Mohd, A., Yaman, A.R., Jamaludin, M.A., 1999. Recreational opportunities for public use in Ayer Hitam forest: setting the stage and park management approach. Pertanika J. Trop. Agric. Sci. 22, 161–166.
Narasimmarajan, K., Raghunathan, C., 2012. Status of long-tailed macaque (Macaca fasciculans) and conservation of the recovery population in Great Nicobar Island, India. Wildl. Biol. Pract. 8, 1–8.
Plumptre, A.J., Sterling, EJ., Buckland, S.T., 2013. Primate census and survey techniques. In: Sterling, E.J., Bynum, N., Blair, M.E. (Eds.), Primate Ecology and Conservation: A Handbook of Techniques. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 10–26.
Poirier, F.E., Smith, E.O., 1974. The crab-eating macaques (Macaca fasciculans) of Angaur Island, Palau, Indonesia. Folia Primatol. 22, 258–306.
Richard, A.F., Goldstein, S.J., Dewar, R.E., 1989. Weed macaques: the evolutionary implications of macaque feeding ecology. Int. J. Primatol. 10, 569.
Riley, CM., 2007. The human-macaque interface: conservation implications of current and future overlap and conflict in Lore Lindu National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Am. Anthropol. 9, 473–484.
Riley, E.P., Fuentes, A., 2011. Conserving social-ecological systems in Indonesia: human-nonhuman primate interconnections in Bali and Sulawesi. Am. J. Primatol. 73, 62–74.
Riley, CM., Jayasri, S.L., Gumert, M.D., 2015. Results of a nationwide census of the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fasciculans) population of Singapore. Raffles Bull. Zool. 63, 503–515.
Sha, J.C.M., Gumert, M.D., Lee, B.P.Y.H., Fuentes, A., Rajathurai, S., Chan, S., Jones-Engel, L., 2009. Status of long-tailed macaque Macaca fasciculans in Singapore and implications for management. Biodivers. Conserv. 18, 2909–2926.
Sha, J.C.M., Hanya, G., 2013a. Temporal food resource correlates to the behavior and ecology of food-enhanced long-tailed macaque (Macaca fasciculans). Mammal Study 38, 163–175.
Sha, J.C.M., Hanya, G., 2013b. Diet, activity, habitat use, and ranging of two neighboring groups of food-enhanced long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasciculans). Am. J. Primatol. 75, 581–592.
Smart, S.M., Thompson, K., Marrs, R.H., Duc, M.G.L, Maskell, L.C., Firbank, L.G., 2006. Biotic homogenization and changes in species diversity across human-modified ecosystems. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B., Biol. Sci. 273, 2659–2665.
Southwick, C.H., Cadigan, F.C., 1972. Population studies of Malaysian primates. Primates 13, 1–18.
Sussman, R.W., Tattersall, L., 1986. Distribution, abundance, and putative ecological strategy of Macaca fasciculans on the Island of Mauritius, Southwestern Indian Ocean. Folia Primatol. 46, 28–43.
Swartz, K.B., 1983. Species discrimination in infant pig-tailed macques with pictorial stimuli. Dev. Psychobiol. 16, 219–231.
Tabarelli, M., Peres, C.A., Melo, F.P.L, 2012. The’ few winners and many losers’ paradigm revisited: emerging prospects for tropical forest biodiversity. Biol. Conserv. 155, 136–140.
Takasaki, H., 1981. Troop size, habitat quality, and home range area in Japanese macaques. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 9, 277–281.
Tee, S.L., Samantha, LD., Kamarudin, N., Akbar, Z., Lechner, A.M., Ashton-Butt, A., Azhar, B., 2018. Urban forest fragmentation impoverishes native mammalian biodiversity in the tropics. Ecol. Evol., https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4632, in press.
Thierry, B., Singh, M., Kaumanns, W., 2004. Macaque Societies: a Model for the Study of Social Organization. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Thomson, L.A.J., Thaman, R.R., Retrieved from 2006. Pometia pínnata (tava), ver 2.1. Species profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry. Permanent Agriculture Resources (PAR), Hōlualoa, Hawai’i, on 12 May 2016 https://doi.org/www.traditionaltree.org.
van Noordwijk, M.A., van Schaik, C.P., 1985v. Male migration and rank acquisition in wild long-tailed macaques (Macaca fasciculans). Anim. Behav. 33, 849–861.
Wheatley, B.P., 1978. The Behavior and Ecology of the Crab Eating Macaque (Macaca fasciculans) in the Kutai Nature Reserve. University Microfilms International., East Kalimantan, Indonesia. London.
Wilcove, D.S., Koh, L.P., 2010. Addressing the threats to biodiversity from oil palm agriculture. Biodivers. Conserv. 19, 999–1007.
Yaap, B., Struebig, M.J., Paoli, G., Koh, L.P., 2010. Mitigating the biodiversity impacts of oil palm development. CAB Int. 5, 1–11.
Yeager, C.P., 1996. Feeding ecology of the long-tailed macaque (Macaca fasciculans) in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia. Int. J. Primatol. 17, 51–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tee, S.L., Solihhin, A., Juffiry, S.A. et al. The effect of oil palm agricultural expansion on group size of long-tailed macaques (Macacafascicularis) in Peninsular Malaysia. Mamm Biol 94, 48–53 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2018.12.006
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2018.12.006