National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Experimental Forest said that it is considering neutering macaques in its Sitou Nature Education Area in Nantou County’s Lugu Township (鹿谷) to prevent conflicts between the animals and humans.
At lunchtime on Sunday, a male Formosan rock macaque entered an area where visitors were resting and tried to snatch a visitor’s instant noodles, an observer said.
After failing to obtain the noodles, he began targeting a couple, and took a traditional Taiwanese bun and an entire bag of food from them while they were not paying attention, the observer said, adding that the monkey proceeded to eat the food on a rock nearby.
Photo: Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times
The Sitou Nature Education Area is mainly made up of afforested conifers, with few natural food sources for Formosan rock macaques, the Experimental Forest said.
The increase in the macaque population in the area, their decreasing fear of humans and their move to lower altitudes have probably been caused by inappropriate feeding by humans, it said.
In addition to the warning signs placed around the area reminding visitors not to feed or approach the monkeys, the Experimental Forest is to increase patrols and communication in hopes of preventing conflicts between humans and monkeys, it said.
Photo: Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times
It is also considering neutering as a way to reduce the macaque population, although details would need to be discussed with the NTU College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture’s veterinary and forestry departments, it said.
Visitors to the area should keep their distance from the Formosan rock macaques, said Huang Chun-tse (黃群策), head of the Forestry Bureau’s conservation division.
Do not feed the monkeys as they develop a habit of being fed, he said, with abnormal behaviors such as stealing food becoming more common. It becomes “very difficult” for the animals to undo these behaviors and then return to the wild, he said.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi
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