June Hols W2

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Nic and Nat

5.24pm:

- around 29 macaques

- around 32 people

- big bin not there

- whole site rather clean and not a lot of rubbish around

5.40pm:

- around 32 macaques

- around 26 people

6pm:

- around 23 macaques

- around 30 people

Macaque behavior:

- walking on roads

- grooming each other

- disregard of human and cars

- come very close to humans

- sit and walk on cars

- play in the middle of roads

- trying to open bins

- rummaging through bins

- eating from styrofoam boxes

- one monkey snatched bag of chips from a boy (almost scratched boy)

- walk through houses

- made screechy noises at each other

Human behavior:

- go very near macaques (<1m)

- taking pictures of macaques

- little kids shouting at monkeys

- mother (and mho) allow kids to continue, even laughing at the scene

- some bins not locked/closed

- one little girl wanted to touch a baby monkey but parents scolded her and dragged her away

- one man feeding monkeys bread

TIff and Ying

4.40pm: Reached lab area. Saw 2 monkeys near the slope at the end of Wallace Trail. We tried to take a picture of them but they disappeared into the trees. Attempted to look for them along the trail.

5pm: Found 6 monkeys

Macaque behaviour:

- climbed along branches

- grooming each other

- feeding on leaves, twigs and flowers

- shrieking 

- retreating deeper into trees/disappearing into the trees when humans make a lot of noise

human behaviour:

- middle-aged woman with her young son were walking along the trail. Young boy started screaming and pointing at the monkeys, trying to attract the macaques' attention. 

- middle-aged couple stood for awhile to observe the macaques at safe distance. (>1m)

- a few other people just ignored the macaques.

June Hols W1

Bukit Timah (Nic and Nat)

June Week 1.

Bukit Timah

5:10pm:

- Around 17 macaques

- Around 25 people

- Big bin still gone

- Area still rather clean except for a few torn open plastic bags around locked bins.

5:25pm:

- 25 macaques seen

- Around 35 people

5:35pm:

- 32 macaques seen

- 35 people seen

5: 50pm:

- 30 macaques seen

- 40 people seen

6:05pm:

Macaque behavior

• Running across the roads chasing each other
• Eating in the middle of the road
• Eating leaves, tree bark and fruits that drop on the ground.
• A group of 3 macaques making loud aggressive noises at each other on the roof
• Two macaques running on the road chasing each other
• Climbing on vehicles parked by the road
• Macaques tore apart the few plastic bags on the pavement
• Macaques drank from an open bottle of carbonated drink.
• Two macaque tried shaking a bin to open it.

Human behavior

• Old woman shooing away monkeys which went too close to her.
• Young man with the old woman scaring the macaques away with an umbrella
• Two teenagers went very close and squatted near a group of macaques with a small baby macaque. They were laughing and taking photos with their camera.
• A little boy threw a few chips towards the monkeys
• Father encourage boy and was excited when the monkeys rushed towards the chips.

WELL (Tiff and Ying)

4.25pm: Reached lab area. 0 monkeys seen. Around 22 people.

4.30pm: Went up slope leading towards the end of Wallace Trail. Saw 2 macaques along the trail and 3 on the trees.

Monkey Observations-

1) When we approached the monkeys, they immediately moved away from us and jumped back onto the trees.

Monkeys on trees were:

- Plucking leaves

- Scratching

- Feeding

- Climbing from tree to tree/ up and down vines

2) When the macaques on the trees finally noticed us, they stared for a while before moving further into the trees.

T2W10

Bukit Timah

5.12pm:
- Around 22 macaques
- Around 25 ppl
- Big bin still gone
- Whole site rather clean and free of rubbish



Macaque behaviour:

• Disregard of humans and cars
• Walking on roads
• Sit in the middle of roads and groom each other
• Eating leaves
• Eating leftovers (from aluminum foil, paper wrappings, etc.)
• Picking up styrofoam cup left behind by construction worker
• Drinking from styrofoam cup
• Drinking from drink cans
• Sitting and walking on cars

Human behaviour:

• 1 man keep agitating macaques - stomping his feet, shooing macaques
• People ignoring/disregarding macaques presence
• Small kids went very near macaques (<1m) to macaque family to look at/observe them
• Parents allow children to go near macaques
• People in cars give way to macaques on the road
• Left their dustbins open (no locks, open)
• 1 woman go veryvery near (<1/2m) to take pictures of macaques

WELL (Ying)

4pm - Arrived at WELL. Overcast sky. 8 people observed. No macaques were found along the lab and the entrance.

4.30pm- 13 people observed. Still no macaques observed although monkey calls were heard near the end of the Wallace Trail.

4.45pm- Started to drizzle. 0 macaques were found.

T2W9

WELL

Tiff and Ying

4.25pm - 5.25pm

Location - WELL:

No monkeys were observed. They were not near the exhibition center, and were also not at the edge of the forest in the trees where they were found the previous week.

5.30pm

Location - At the entrance to the forest trail, near the toilets and the carpark. There are trees and a drain/canal where water is flowing on the ground below the trees.

Macaque observations:

- About 12 or more macaques

- 3-4 baby/small macaques climbing while the rest were larger in size (adults)

- Macaques were very active and were constantly moving, never remaining at a particular spot for very long

- When macaques moved about, the trees would shake and the leaves would rustle (they made alot of noise)

- Jumped from one tree/branch to another

- One macaque jumped from the wooden railing it was perched on (that separates the forest from the trail) onto a tree leaf

- One large macaque jumped down from the tree it had been sitting on and ran very quickly across the trail to the other side, and climbed onto another tree

- Plucking leaves

- Feeding on leaves

- Scratching

- Made chirping noises

- Other macaques responded to these chirping noises

- One macaque sitting on the tree right next to the toilet stared at the humans for a while before disappearing into the trees

Human observations:

- One little boy commented in chinese that the macaques there were very naughty (considers monkey as naughty --> monkeys were not doing anything agressive/disturbing --> different perception from others??)

- A few people were taking photographs of the macaques

- One person walking with her dog on her leash stopped to look at the macaques. The dog seemed very interested in the macaques and kept pulling on its leash to try and move towards the macaques)

5.50pm

Location (same as previous) - At the entrance to the forest trail, near the toilets and the carpark. There are trees and a drain/canal where water is flowing on the ground below the trees.

Very few monkeys that could be visibly observed in the trees, only about 3-4 remaining.

Nat and Nicole (Bukit Timah)

Camera ran out of batt so didn't take any pictures or videos):

5pm:

- big bin still gone!

- 12 macaques observed (around row of houses, along the drain areas and road)

- around 27 people seen

5.20pm:

- 24 macaques seen

- around 30-35 people present

5.40pm:

- 35 macaques seen

- around 40 people seen

6pm:

- 26 macaques seen

- around 40 people

Macaque behavior:

- climbing and jumping on vehicles

- walking in the middle of roads, ignore all passing vehicles, take their time

- come very close to people (<1m)

- walk through residences

- climb on roofs

- rummaged through bins (along the row of houses)

- opened close dustbins

- 1 macaque snatched a plastic bag from an ang moh woman and climbed up a tree with it!

- eating and drinking from cans and plastic bags and brown paper wrapping

Human behavior:

- Man rang bicycle bell to scare off a group of monkeys by the road

- 4 small children running around very near the monkeys

- Parents at the side were not concerned.

- Man took pictures of the monkeys within a close distance (1m-2m)

Tables of Observations

Hi okay so far I have this. Just typed it out.
Ying has the macaque behaviour (BT) and nat has the macaque behaviour (WELL).
Then we need make one more human behaviour (WELL) one. And then 2 other tables comparing the similarities and differences seen in human behaviour in both sites and macaque behaviour, again in both sites.
So we can do that next week. Or first week of June hols I guess since have that IHG thing next Wednesday.
Yeap. Oh and need collate our data collected from the interviews. Is there a certain format? Idk. So yea laterlater then see how. Yea here's the table. Nat, Ying, can upload yours here(:

Okay here:

KEY
r - behaviour observed
- behaviour not observed
NIL - behaviour cannot be observed

Table of Human Behaviour (relevant to our study) Observed in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Behaviour Observed	Weeks W2 W4 W5 W7 W8
Close proximity to macaques (<1m)	rrNILNILr
Aggravating/agitating the macaques (chasing, baring teeth, shouting, stomping feet, etc. at macaques)	rrNILNILr
Providing access to rubbish for macaques (littering, leaving some bins open/unlocked, etc.)	rrrrr
Removing access to rubbish for macaques (locking some bins, clearing up certain areas, etc.)	rrrrr
Feeding macaques	rNILNILr
Encouraging others to interact with macaques (playing, taking photos, go closer etc.)	rNILNILr
Warning others (dangers of the macaques, negative impacts that may arise, etc.)	rNILNIL
Ignoring macaques	rrNILNILr

Week 5 – raining at site

Week 7 – no macaques observed, so no human behaviour recorded

Table of Macaque Behaviour (relevant to our study) Observed in WELL

Macaque Behaviour	Week Number Wk 1 Wk 2 Wk 3 Wk 4 Wk5
Venturing out of their natural habitat	r NIL NIL NIL
Avoid approaching humans (E.g turn away, run away etc)	r NIL NIL NIL r
Feeding on natural food sources (E.g leaves, bark etc)	r NIL NIL NIL r
Display signs of aggression (E.g teeth baring, shrieking etc)	r NIL NIL NIL

Table of Macaque Behaviour (relevant to our study) Observed in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Bahaviour Observed	Weeks (when behaviour was observed) W2 W4 W5 W7 W8
Venture out of natural habitat (walk on main road, enter houses, climb on cars etc.)	rrrrr
In close proximity to humans	rrrNILr
Display signs of aggression (baring teeth, shrieking, etc.)	r   rNIL
Complete disregard to human presence (ignore humans in close proximity, move into close proximity to humans)	rrrNILr
Complete disregard to passing vehicles	rrrNILr
Rummaging through rubbish (opening bins, plastic bags, paper bags, food wrappers, cartons etc)	rrrNILr
Rummaging through human belongings	NILr
Grab/Snatch food from humans	r   NILr
Feeding on natural food sources	rr   NILr
Feeding on food obtained from humans	rrrNILr

T2W8

Nic and Nat (BT)

- 4.40pm:

• 2 monkeys seen at drain area
• none at usual locations (carpark, big bin, outside houses)
• around 40 people present
• big bin removed and area very clean!

- 4.50pm: 5 monkeys seen, around 40 people at site

- 5pm: 9 macaques seen, around 50 people

- 5.05pm: 22 macaques observed

- 5.15pm:

• 25 monkeys seen (walking along roads, near drains)
• still none at usual sites
• around 30 people seen

Macaque behaviour

• eating banana peels (from bins? from members of the public?)
• eating leaves
• climbing on cars/lorries
• searching through human belongings (on the lorry)
• walking in the middle of roads [very slowly] (disregarding any passing vehicles)
• sitting and grooming each other in the middle of roads
• drinking from cans
• rummaging through open bins

Human behaviour

• squat down to observe monkeys very closely (< 50cm away)
• children shouting at monkeys
• drive slowly and give way to the macaques along the road
• boy and father: put empty cans of drinks near macaques to see if they take them, happy and satisfied after seeing the macaques take their cans ( D: )

Tiff and Ying (WELL) OUR FIRST TIME SEEING MONKEYS HERE HOHOHO.

9.05am (We were told by one of the sweepers that monkeys are usually seen in the morning)- Arrived at the lab. Around 20+ people. 0 monkeys observed.

9.40am- >30 people. 0 monkeys observed in areas near the lab.

9.50am- 8 monkeys (a whole colony!) spotted on trees towards the end of the Wallace Trail. They were not found near the lab and exhibition center at all. The monkeys are not at all aggressive and just stayed on the trees. We were the only ones in the area (very little human interaction)

I''ll show you guys the video tomorrow cos the vid refuses to be uploaded. And we took a super cool video of termites (cos we kinda got carried away heheh) so we'll show it to you guys too.

Macaque behaviour:

• Monkeys were very agile and could climb along very thin vines and branches to find food
• Eating flowers and leaves from the trees they were sitting on
• Monkey communicated using grunting and wheezing noises, and the other monkeys hidden in the trees answered back with similar noises
• When monkeys noticed people staring/watching them, they ran up the branches/further into the trees - scared
• When I walked closer to one of the monkeys, it ran away

Baby and Mother monkey

• Mother carrying its baby around protectively while moving through the trees
• Baby monkey clinging on to its mother
• Made high pitched noises

Human behaviour:

• A jogger saw the monkeys and just continued with no reaction
• Little girl with her family noticed the monkeys and was shouting in excitement, wanted to take a picture of the monkeys

todos.

T2W8 wednesday (after bio PPA)
- finish writing literary review

T2W9 wednesday
- compile observations (so far) into tables

bleugh.