Action

Last Update = December 2022

Board Meeting

We just had our quarterly board meeting. Everything is going to plan and we feel comfortable taking the next steps with the organization. In 2022, we focused mainly on gaining additional data on distribution and abundance of wild populations of long-tailed macaques in habitat countries. This will continue in 2023, as our work with human-macaque coexistence slowly become our main focus.

Screenshot from our board meeting (December 2022). Kurnia Ilham (Andalas University, Indonesia) presents his work on crop feeding mitigation techniques.

Funding

Words fail to capture our gratitude to our funders, who support us through funding and invaluable input. Thank you!
In 2022, we have been awarded funding from QATO for coexistence work with the Animal Neighbours Project in Malaysia, with Kurnia Ilham in Sumatra, and Andalas University in Indonesia.
We also received funding from the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) for administrative expenses, and a donation from Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park.

Publications

All our publications can be found on the Resources page . In 2022, we had produced:
– One trade article under the LTM Project;
– Ten assessments for the IUCN red List; and
– One statement,
We also submitted an action letter on the threats of laboratory research to long-tailed macaques. We encourage all our collaborators to share their published work on long-tailed macaques with us.

General News

The elevation of the Long-tailed Macaque to Endangered on the IUCN Red List in July 2022 led to increased interest in the species, but also brought some confusion. We acknowledge that in some areas the long-tailed macaques remain in sustainable numbers, but in many others they are disappearing fast. The threats to all populations remain multiple and urgent.
As our knowledge on long-tailed macaques increases, it adds to the long list of justifications for their uplisting. Below, you find more information for specific countries.
In general, the observation reports are summarized as
“There are fewer than we thought.” “We cannot find them.” “Groups sizes range from five to no more than 10 individuals.“
We hope that this important step by the IUCN will help save the species, by reducing threats and encouraging evidence-based conservation and management initiatives.

We have also been contacted by many reporters who quoted us in media articles. Here, you find the latest one.

Our Administrator, Nadja, has now been with us one year and has become an integrated part of the organisation and our work, focusing on administration and social media. In 2023, Nadja will take the plunge and travel to Malaysia and Indonesia to visit our projects and begin her career in ethnoprimatology: chasing coexistence stories across SE Asia. Our long-term volunteer, Rebecca remains a dependable and invaluable collague in our organisation and we are extremely happy that she will continue with us. During the year, we also had Valeria, Bettina, Athanasia and Yannick volunteer for us. We are grateful for their energy and support.
We have three MSc students form University of Copenhagen currently: Athanasia, Xueying and Akvile who help us with data analyses – and just about everything we throw at them 😉

We collaborate with brilliant photographers to increase the interest in and knowledge of long-tailed macaques:
Neil Challis (Right picture) https://neilchallisphotography.com/,
Rick Wood https://www.facebook.com/groups/365557178381063 and
Niels Dierick (Left picture) https://www.instagram.com/nielsdierickphotography/

Country-specific:

Indonesia:
Kurnia Ilham, Andalas University continues his work on coexistence in agricultural landscapes in West Sumatra and is becoming a very important advisor and collaborator for the LTM Project in general for coexistence in Indonesia. In 2023, he will continue his work and also help the LTM Project, Ecosystem Impact and Aluan further coexistence between coconut farmers and two Critically Endangered endemic long-tailed macaque subspecies on the islands of Simeulue and Lasia.
In December, Radila from Andalas University in West Sumatra began working with us and Yayasan IAR Indonesia to assess the abundance and distribution of long-tailed macaques in Indonesia. We welcome Dila to the team and look forward to working with her.

Malaysia:
Sharmini, Ashwiini and Nicole from ANP continue their work for coexistence in urban landscapes in Selangor, Malaysia. Nicole focuses on implementing “monkey guarding”, which was initially created and trialled in Singapore by Sabrina Jabbar and the Jane Goodall Institute Singapore and the Singapore Long-Tailed Macaque Working Group.

The Philippines:
The Philippines have also experienced difficulties with coexistence in coconut plantations. We collaborate with the Macaque Coalition under Asia for Animals to seek solutions and understanding.
We are a part of the Philippine primate group, where especially Marisol Pedregosa, Lief Gamalo and Brian Sabanal work hard to assess long-tailed macaque distribution and abundance and to find solutions to further coexistence. We hope to be a part of a workshop on the uplisting of long-tailed macaques to Endagered and coexistence mid 2023 with the DENR should this be a possibility.

Vietnam:
Mr Bang from the Southern Institute of Ecology continues his important work on assessing the long-tailed macaque population in Vietnam. He will soon finish his surveys and is eager to present his findings. We work with a larger group of NGOs and scientists in Vietnam, and we hope to be able to have a workshop with the government mid 2023 to discuss the possibility of increasing the protective status of the long-tailed macaque in Vietnam.

Cambodia:
Seiha is currently on his last months with us. He will continue his PhD research after this. Seiha has gathered an immense amount of data together with Conservation International Cambodia through collaborations with many NGOs, who now also function as advisors and collaborators for us. We hope to soon be able to present the findings.

Laos:
Dr. Phaivanh finished his research in Lao PDR this year after two years of surveys. We are working on a publication, which will hopefully be submitted soon.

Bangladesh:
Tanvir and Sabit and their teams from NACOM and Isabela Foundation finished their surveys in 2021, but in 2022 they remained hopeful to find long-tailed macaques in Bangladesh. This sadly has not happened yet, but we keep our hopes high and will soon submit a manuscript on their work.

Statement, 17th November 2022

Exploitation levels, and here especially the trade for laboratory research, threaten the survival of the long-tailed macaque. During the pandemic, the demand for long-tailed macaques in laboratory research increased, which sparked habitat-countries to increase exports of the species.

Yesterday (16 NOV 2022) the USFWS released news of the indictment of several government officials from Cambodia and leaders of a research and breeding group from Hong Kong regarding the illegal laundering of wild-caught long-tailed macaques as captive bred https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/pr/cambodian-officials-and-six-co-conspirators-indicted-taking-part-primate-smuggling

We are extremely happy to see indictments happen and we believe this is very positive news for the long-tailed macaque. However, we believe to truly conserve the species, we need to focus on reducing the demand. This means targetting the people/institutions that order the macaques and ensure they take responsibility for their actions, and reduce their reliance on non-human primate research subjects.

The long-tailed macaque faces many threats and it will take a global effort to ensure its survival in its native habitats, where it provides a crucial ecological and cultural service to wildlife, nature and people.

Updated 21st July 2022

The long-tailed macaque and all subspecies have been reassesed/assessed for the IUCN Red List. The long-tailed macaque is now Endangered A3cd: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/12551/199563077.

Please read our statement below to understand the assessment that was a collaboration within the LTM Project:

Updated June 2022

General:
Our main focus currently, is gathering data on the distribution of long-tailed macaques in SE Aisa. We are trying to get information from all sources possible, including cameratrap footage, anectdotal information and researchers in the field. We have made data sharing with several organisations in Cambodia, in collaboration with Seiha Hun, Conservation International. We believe that knowledge on the current status of the long-tailed macaques is the best way for us to help this species.

The fantastic photographer Neil Challis is working with our administrator, Nadja Ramseyer, on a short film about the The Long-Tailed Macaque project. Take a look at this amazing video Neil made, about the relationsship between long-tailed macaques and a local community in a mangrove forest on the Andaman coast of Southern Thailand.

We are planning a perception survey, to get a better understanding of the relationship between humans and macaques.

Previously:
The board met on the 19th April to discuss our current focus and evaluate. It was a fruitful meeting and we are keeping our course and focusing on collecting all the information we need to effectively collaborate on conserving the long-tailed macaque. The board meets every 3rd month.

We held a successful workshop on the 25th February with 65+ attendees. Here habitat-country researchers provided updates on their research and the curent status of research on the long-tailed macaque in their country. We also discussed the activities going forward, which include a survey on the cultural behaviours of macaques by the MACS team, an internal survey of practical non-invasive coexistence techniques, and a list of which population census methods to employ where.

Vietnam:
Mr. Bang Van Tran from the Southern Institute of Ecology in Vietnam has begun his large survey of the long-tailed macaque in Vietnam, documenting the population size and distribution through collecting existing data from local organisations and governments and by visiting sites to collect data himself. He will also be investigating the perceptions of local stakeholders towards the long-tailed macaque. All to better protect and manage the species.

Indonesia and Malaysia:
We succesfully gained funding from QATO – a Danish animal welfare funding agency – for two projects; one in Indonesia with Kurnia Ilham, Andalas University on mitigating crop foraging by long-tailed macaques, and one in Malaysia with Animal Neighbours Project on mitigating negative human-macaque interactions in urban areas. Both projects focus on fostering coexistence by collaborating with local people.

Bangladesh:
Over the past six months, Tanvir Ahmed and his team from NACOM has conducted a a population census survey of the long-tailed macaque in Bangladesh. Sadly no individuals where found, and the species is now considered extinct in the country. Tanvir and his team are working on publishing the results.

Malaysia:
At the Animal Neighbours Project, Malaysia, Ashwiini Paranjhoti, is working on improving the relationship between humans and monkeys in shared urban spaces.

Lao PDR:
Dr. Phaivanh Phiapalath is doing fieldwork, trying to locate the last long-tailed macaques of the country. It seems he has already discovered some, which we are very happy about.

The Philippines:
Emerson Sy, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia is leading a one-year trade survey.

Cambodia:
Conservation International Cambodia hired a consultant who will be in charge of producing a current distribution map of long-tailed macaques in Cambodia, as well as an estimation of the population size derived from both existing material as well as census surveys conducted by the consultant.

IUCN:
We recently contributed to the IUCN Red List conservation status assessment of the species (Macaca fascicularis) and the nine sub species (M. f. condorensis, M. f. lasiae, M. f. fusca, M. f. umbrosa, M. f. tua, M. f. karimondjawae, M. f. fascicularis, M. f. aurea, M. f. atriceps). We are currently awaiting approval from IUCN.

Volunteers:
Our volunteers are working very hard and we could not function without them. They are making distribution maps, content for our social media and giving talks and writing news pieces for the project.