Macaque
When I left Matang in March I was sad to leave the two youngest pig tailed Macaque’s Rocky and Juan we had become firm friends and and I missed especially Rocky whilst I was at home. Pleased to say they were both fine and obviously had not missed me at all, although Rocky did jump straight onto my hand and remain sitting there which was something he always used to do.
They are a firm favourite with all the volunteers being very mischevious and benefiting immensely from the constant attention they are given.
It was alarming to be informed that only the day before 9 long tail(crab eating) macaque and one extremely pretty female pig tailed macaque had been confiscated from a premises in Miri, along with these monkeys came a large crocodile 4 samba deer and a slow loris, they had been subjected to a long 17 hour journey as Matang Wildlife Centre is the only holding area in Sarawak for confiscated animals, they recovered remarkably well and it was nice to see 9 macaque that had always lived on their own now in a group happily grooming each other,
the female has been put next to Rocky and Juan but unfortunately at the moment the three of them are challenging each other mostly due to Rocky showing off, they are being given a few more days grace and if still not happy alternative accommodation will be found for Nora the female. As I update this they are now getting on really well and are grooming each other.
Sarawak forestry have advised that there are more Macaque coming in within the next few days this is worrying as there are not enough facilities for many more monkeys, volunteers have now got to work hard to restore old enclosures and be ready for the new arrivals.
The Macaue in Malaysia is often seen as vermin due mainly to the fact that their habitat has been taken over by people and the lure of easy food in rubbish bins is too hard to resist, obviously there is very little patience with local people and all too often they are destroyed. They are also kept as pets and are useful to send up trees to reach coconuts and any other high growing fruit. Once they get to old to manage they are either destroyed, surrendered to a wildlife centre or just let go into the forest it is often these monkeys that return to the villages in search of humans and food.
Bako National Park has an abundance of Macaque which are entertaining to watch unless of course you really wanted to eat your lunch. they will steal your food run a small distance away to eat it, your accomodation will be ransacked as well if you leave windows open
These are called Long Tail Macaque or crab eating macaque one of the reasons there are so many at Bako is because it is situate in the wetlands we have two male crab eating macaue at Matang Wildlife Centre called Matt and Boboy and as part of the enrichment programme Hillary our local Orangutan rehabilitator took volunteerrs to Telga Air an estuary about 15 minutes drive from Matang to go crabbing . Boboy especially went crazy for the crabs
A large male Pig Tailed Macaque named Bob has been transferred to Matang Wildlife Centre from Semenggogg, we work vey closely with Sememgogg and all their animals both centers trying to help each other. John Collam from Matang Wildlife Centre sedated the monkey and Hillary took 3 volunteers with him to collect it
The hope is that this large male will eventually intigrate with the 6 macaques we already have and save him being on his own, these monkeys live in large troops so it is hoped that he will fit in, it will take time as he is so large and dominant and he has been living on hs own for a long time, He is quite magnificient and I had the pleasure of weighing him he weighed 11kilos which is quite a size. it was an honour to be holding such a big monkey.
Macaquettes have real character and love nothing more than to be played with, the two young pig tailed macaue Rocky and Juan have come on leaps and bounds and now recognize their favorite people with a scream of delight every time you pass
The plan is for Juan and Rocky when they re a bit older to be put into the cage next to the other pig tail macquattes with the hope that they will integrate, this will mean that we will then have an established group of macquattes which can be released very soon.
I take great pleasure in going to the market to buy live food for all the animals’ such as worms and crickets which the macaquettes love. It was interesting to see Matt and Boboy’s (the two longtail macaques) reaction to meal worms. They were both initially scared Matt actually running away from them until they realized how good they tasted. I then hid the worms in earth and let them forage for themselves.
The live food means they have been able to forage for meals. All of the macaques are now given leaves daily to play with and this provides hours of enjoyment as does the ropes and enrichment created by volunteers.
Matt & Bobby, the long tailed Macaques are both growing and enjoy exploring the regular changes to their environment by inventive volunteers. Their favourite game is ‘grab-a-vol’ through the bars when they are being cleaned out!
Juan has been at Matang since the summer of 2007 and is still young. Juan enjoys lulling people into thinking he is gentle, using his cute boyish looks and then scratching them.
Rocky was brought in to Matang in January 2008. He’s is very young and has been put with a Juan. Rocky is still young and needs to be bottle fed but Juan insists on Rocky’s milk but that’s okay as he is only young himself and will actually do him good These two little monkeys provide hours of entertainment for the volunteers and also spend a lot of time grooming anybody who comes near to them.
There are also several other Macaques at the center including 3 females brought in at the end of 2007.
Updates:
December 2007
Three pretty female pig tailed macaques, a mother and her daughters arrived at the centre. They are ex pets that had lived together in a local village for some years. The males next door are certainly interested in their new neighbours but for now must content themselves with looking but not touching…
12th January 2008
A young baby pig tail Macaque called Rocky was bought in on 12th January. After being wormed and allowed to settle in he was integrated with Juan. As Rocky is very young he needs to be bottle fed and these two now enjoy sharing a cage and playing with each other.
25th January 2008
Two long tailed macaque’s were released by Hilary and Alex, a volunteer, today into Kubah national park. These two monkeys have been living around the staff quarters for at least three months and have proved they are quite capable of living in the wild. Hillary and Alex walked for two hours into the forest to the release site, where they needed no persuasion to leave the cage.
