STUFF TO DO FOR NEXT TRIP

Record observations of long-tailed macaques AND number of people + types of behaviour. Cos we'll have to show the relationship between human interactions and macaque behaviour. So yeah, just remember (:

T2W5

Nic and Nat (BT)

- 4.30pm - arrived, 28 macaques at the bin
- bin lid held closed with locks, hole still present
- 4.40pm - STARTED RAINING, 5 macaques remaining at bin, most went to hide in trees
- 5.10pm - 0 macaques at the bin, 0 at the carpark as well

Monkey behaviour observed: (not much as it was raining)

• jumping/playing around on the roofs of houses
• trying to open dustbins
• rummaging through dustbins
• eating food from plastic bags
• eating grass, bark and leaves (after started raining, see pictures)

No human behaviour observed.


Interview (with residents)
Ang Moh Woman (allowed us to record the interview)
1. Are there so many macaques even on weekdays?
A: Yes they’re here every day.

2. Do the monkeys often enter your home?
A: Yes they enter my home often to look for food, or even what they think is food

3. What problems do you face regarding the monkeys?
A: They steal food, mess up my things. They also destroy things like bowls and cups. Sometimes when we forget to close the windows or something, we come back to find our glassware and porcelain smashed. Once, we discovered our sofa had a very big scratch! A lot of things go missing, like toothpaste and the washing. Many things to missing from our home if we leave the door open. They leave a lot of poop around the house. They open the bins outside, so you have to lock them in order to keep them out of the trash.

4. Are the monkeys aggressive? How so?
A: They show their teeth and pretend to be aggressive, but they aren’t really aggressive. The monkeys pretend just to scare people to make them drop whatever they’re holding, especially if they’re holding a plastic bag. They might go up and try to snatch the plastic bag but if you don’t appear frightened and scare them back, they’ll just go away. (Demonstrates “aggressive motion” towards monkeys. If you show fear then they’ll go up to you and try to snatch your stuff. But I’ve never seen them really attacking anyone. Though I have seen some visitors’ stuff being snatched away by the monkeys.

5. What do you do when you see the monkeys?
A: They don’t usually enter our house when we’re at home, and we just ignore them if they’re outside around the bins. Only if they try to scare me I would (demonstrates “scary action” towards monkeys) and try to frighten them away.

6. What sort of interactions do you observe between visitors and monkeys?
A: I’ve seen a lot of people feeding the monkeys, and then I’ll tell them off and scold them for doing it. They’re not the ones living here, they don’t know the consequences of what they’re doing.
7. What do you think has caused this extensive infestation of the monkeys?
A: I wouldn’t consider it an “infestation”, since they were here first. But when people have food, they encourage the monkeys by feeding them, they lose their fear of humans, and start to wander out of their homes.

Chinese Middle-aged woman (not allowed to record)
1. Are there so many macaques even on weekdays?
A: Yes everyday same.

2. Do the monkeys often enter your home?
A: Ya, everyday.

3. What problems do you face regarding the monkeys?
A: They steal food, mess up my things. They also destroy things like bowls and cups. Sometimes when we forget to close the windows or something, we come back to find our glassware and porcelain smashed. Once, we discovered our sofa had a very big scratch!

4. Are the monkeys aggressive? How so?
A: They are sometimes aggressive amongst each other, playing and fighting, and they make a lot of loud screechy noises. But other than messing up our homes, they are very rarely aggressive to us. I've seen them TRY to be aggressive la, but only to scare people into giving them food. But never really violent like attacking or scratching people.

5. What do you do when you see the monkeys?
A: I'm used to them, so I will just ignore. But if they try to snatch our food then we will shoo them away. Sometimes we use umbrellas to scare them off also.

6. What sort of interactions do you observe between visitors and monkeys?
A: They try to take pictures VERY close to the monkeys and sometimes also give them plastic bags filled with food. Little kids also make loud noises and faces to intimidate the monkeys and attract their attention. They like to stomp their feet and scream and run around the monkeys.

7. What do you think has caused this change in behaviour of the monkeys?
A: I think they are so used to being fed and finding food in our residences that they don't even bother to look for food in the forests. They think that we are their source of food, so their methods of finding food has evolved from looking for food in the forests to bins and scaring people. So, they are no longer afraid of us as they have to come into close contact with us.

Tiff and Ying (WELL)

At around 4.40pm, no monkeys could be observed as the sky was overcast and it was drizzling.

However, upon questioning, two women sitting inside the WELL laboratory said that they had observed a lot of monkeys everywhere just a while ago. When asked what their reaction to the monkeys was, they commented that they were unafraid of the monkeys as the monkeys did not harm anyone.

Two other couples said that they did not observe any monkeys, though. They probably arrived later than the two women, when it started raining.

We also questioned one of the workers at the WELL site. His job was to sweep the leaves on the floor. As he works there from morning to evening, he said that the monkeys were everywhere, and usually came out from the trees in the morning. However, when asked how he felt about the monkeys, he seemed unable to understand the question and so did not respond.

T2W4

Nic and Nat (BT)

- 5pm - arrived, monkeys seen everywhere

- 5.30pm - 21 monkeys seen around big bin
- 6pm - 7 monkeys seen around big bin
- spotted a hole in the big bin (possibly made by the monkeys?)
- plastic bags and litter strewn everywhere (by the monkeys?)

Macaque behaviour observed:

• grooming each other
• playing and chasing each other (sometimes violently)
• high-pitched shrieking
• rummaging through bins (especially the big bin)
• crossing roads, know how to stop when they see cars driving through
• sit on roads and on road curbs
• climbing and running on cars
• groom each other on top of cars (disregarding all humans around) [watch video]
• walked through houses (even those with dogs)
• flipped open dustbin lids (at least 5 times)
• search through plastic bags, carried them around, causing litter to be everywhere
• picking and eating out of bins and plastic bags
• knocked over bins when trying to open (tried hard to, but could not as there were devices the macaques could not remove, holding the lid down)
• groups of monkeys walked past us < half a metre away
• completely unafraid of humans

Human behaviour observed:

• go VERY close to the monkeys 
• take pictures < 1m away
• entire families surrounding groups of monkeys
• caucasian woman chased away large group of monkeys from the big bin
• caucasian woman closed the lid of the big bin more than 3 times
• caucasian woman encouraged her children to go closer to the macaques to observe them [video]
• told children "they can't hurt you" (MISCONCEPTION!)
• children posed with the monkeys (for pictures) < 1m away (mother was not worried at all, just happily snapping away with her camera)
• one man cautions people about the monkeys (that they can be violent and can snatch things from out of your hands)
• many people stood VERY close to the macaques, even allowing their kids to squat down and try to play with the monkeys

- will interview residents next week

Tiff and Ying (WELL)

No long-tailed macaques were observed on that day (AT ALL). There were very few people at WELL. No one was found at the exhibition centre.

(List possible factors contributing to the absence of macaques on that day. E.g. weather conditions)

T2W2

Tiff and Ying (BT)

Observations of macaques:

-       unafraid of humans

-       sit near road (waiting for food)

-       cracking a nut with teeth

-       male and female macaques humping each other (male advanced towards female first)

-       playing

-       climbing railings and walls

-       bared teeth at something (angry)

-       male advanced towards mother and child, mother is protective of child and moves away from male (watch video)

-       feeding young (suckling milk)

-       macaques make high pitched squealing/whining noises

-       unafraid of humans (when humans take pictures or stand very close, the monkeys do not react)
-   jump onto cars (watch video) and walk on main road (which cars drive through)

Nicole and Natalie (WELL)

Observations of macaques:
 - Monkeys walked over to taps outside toilets to drink water
 - Many monkeys seen outside the Wallace Learning Lab (Many climbed up to the roof to the trees to feed)
 - When some of the monkeys spot humans, they turn around and walk back towards the direction they came from, afraid to come any closer to the humans.
 -  Some monkeys made high pitched noises when humans approached.
 - No monkeys displayed signs of aggresion or made any attempt to come close to us.
 - Most just calmly stared back at humans
 - Monkey calls heard in the Wallace Trail. One monkey seen.
- 5:20PM - No monkeys could be observed.

 Q&A:
One family: Encounters monkeys in WELLs outside the learning lab often. But the monkeys stay far away and remain calm. Unless humans themselves approach the monkeys

One woman: She has never seen monkeys in the Wallace Trail before, but her friend has. She has seen monkeys outside the lab.

One man: Barely sees any monkeys in the wallace trail, only outside near the lab. He thinks that the monkeys are afraid of humans and are afraid to approach. He knows that feeding the monkeys would result in them losing their fear of humans, in turn becoming aggresive towards humans. He even gave an example. Saying that he knows of a case where a macaque went to a coffeeshop at bukit timah to look for food and was very aggresive.