Dr Nancy Priston

The work I do in Buton not only has real-life, on the ground application but is also helping to advance the science of wildlife conservation and management.

So, although I’m only just back from Indonesia, I’m off to Colorado on Saturday (22nd) to present the work I’ve been doing in Buton for the past years at a conference that takes place every 2 years which focuses on human-wildlife conflict and it’s management:  Pathways to success: Integrating Human Dimensions into Fish and Wildlife Management

It should be a a really interesting 4 days. I’ve presented here before and it’s full of like-minded people working in conservation and wildlife management and the program  looks great so it should be fun 🙂

I’ll be giving my presentation on Tuesday 25th (this is my session)

So for a short while you’ll have a break from seeing more footage and info from my recent trip and instead I’ll be posting interesting (in my humble opinion 🙂 ) insights from the conference 🙂

The talk I’m giving is:

Buton Macaques (Macaca ochreata brunnescens): Crops, Conflict,and Behavior on Farms

One consequence of anthropogenic habitat alteration is that many nonhuman primates are forced into conflict interactions with humans and their livelihood activities, especially through crop raiding. These problems are particularly acute for the endemic and threatened Buton Island macaque (Macaca ochreata brunnescens), in southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Our study investigated the crop raiding behavior of this species over time. Foods eaten and the behavioral repertoire exhibited by macaques during crop raiding at and inside farm perimeters were observed over a period of 8 years (2002-2009). Storage organ crops (e.g. sweet potato) were abundant and most frequently raided by macaques. Individual macaques were most commonly observed to raid close (0-10 m) to farm perimeters. Activities such as feeding, resting, moving, and social interaction varied significantly as a function of penetration distance into the farm, but only marginally between age-sex classes. The annual average raid frequency per farm decreased over the latter years of the study period, raising questions about changes in macaque foraging and ranging behavior over time and their response to farm management and mitigation strategies. Characterizing raiding behavior and understanding daily activity budgets are essential from a conservation perspective. Human-macaque interactions have yet to escalate into overt conflict at this study site as religious and traditional views on nonhumans promote some sense of co-existence. It is therefore vital that we help manage this rare instance of ‘‘tolerant” human-wildlife interaction before it reaches an escalated and crisis conflict situation.