AS humans expand our agriculture, housing and recreation, we always take habitat away from other species.
A team of Malaysian and Australian researchers told an audience of staff and students at the International Islamic University of Malaysia recently that humans are increasingly intruding on wildlife habitat, creating more and more conflicts.
Associate Prof Aida Nasirah Abdullah from the National Defence University of Malaysia, Associate Prof Kalthom Hussein from the International Islamic University College Selangor, Dr Mohd Fauzi Kamarudin from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka and I are studying human coexistence with non-human animals.
Humans are strange creatures. We encroach on wildlife habitats and then complain that animals are a nuisance or even trespassing. Nowhere is this more evident than in Australia. Two hundred years ago, after the British arrived, they labelled the kangaroo a “pest” to agriculture and the label has stuck. Today, we have a situation where kangaroos are unwelcome and treated cruelly in many places.
Communities make choices about how they live with other species. Some allow wildlife to run free. While others try to remove the “problem” altogether by killing and culling.
However, killing other species is less acceptable these days. More often, communities seek to restrict wildlife with fences and other barriers, or humans adapt their own homes and lifestyles, and find ways to avoid encounters or minimise potential for harm.
How should we live alongside or manage other species?
Of course, there is no one answer. It depends on the species and the perception of potential inconvenience and harm, both to humans and wildlife.
Monkeys cannot speak for themselves, so they depend on the worldviews of the humans and authorities involved — are they inclined to believe that all creatures are here for the pleasures and uses of humans? Or that we are all equal and interdependent in an ecological whole?
How should we judge and respond to primate behaviour? By our own standards?
In Malaysia, the research teams are challenged by macaques. Across the country, in homes, businesses, public places, university campuses and farms, many have macaques as neighbours.
Many coexist in peace. But for large numbers of people, macaques are exasperating and frustrating. Individually and in groups, macaques steal food, damage property and crops, or torment and intimidate.
Recently, we met a man who retired from corporate life in the city seeking a peaceful and healthy new life growing his own food in the country. “I found my village setting, but the monkeys give me no peace at all. As for growing my own food, any fruit or vegetable I grow they just take, so I stopped trying. Monkeys make it hell”.
He doesn’t want the monkeys killed, but says something needs to be done.
Others have told us that their local macaques despise humans, and seek to cause havoc and fear. Some speculate that bad relations between their village and macaques have been entrenched by years of hostility.
They have tried shiny objects, terrible odours and concoctions, spray painting, noises and barriers. But the macaques are intelligent, and soon learn to avoid or defeat or ignore all deterrents attempted to date.
In Malaysia and other parts of the world, thousands of communities live alongside different species of primate and share similar issues and challenges.
Listening to authorities and villagers talk about macaques, we suspect that much more can be done to match the lived experiences of people living with macaques, with affordable strategies that may make coexistence easier. At one level, communities can learn from each other about ways to adapt and manage. People can discuss techniques and devices that help to detect, deter or distract, and share attitudes that help to reduce stress.
We can also learn more about macaques. We need to share what is known about macaque instincts, preferences and drives that will help us develop approaches and tools that work for humans and macaques.
When do macaques prefer to eat and when do they sleep and graze? What attracts and what deters? Is it all about food? What is the role of boredom and distraction? Perhaps insights into ways that macaques resolve conflict or adapt would also help.
Much is already known. Maybe we need more research to draw together and share what is known, as well as Phd and other studies focused on developing new innovations and technologies that will benefit humans and wildlife.
ASSOCIATE PROF PETER SIMMONS
Charles Sturt University, Australia