Celebes Crested Macaque - Human Interactions

Human Interactions

Because it devastates crops and fields, the Celebes crested macaque is hunted as a pest. It is also hunted to provide bushmeat. Clearing the rain forests further threatens its survival. Its situation on the small neighbouring islands of Sulawesi (such as Bacan) is somewhat better, since these have a low human population. The total population of the macaque on Sulawesi is estimated at 4,000-6,000, while a booming population of up to 100,000 monkeys is found on Bacan.

A recent series of survey trips to Sulawesi and the Minehasa forest area have been made in 2004-2009 by Vicki Melfi, who is EEP studbook holder for these macaques, based at Paignton Zoo / the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. She has been monitoring population density which has declined from over 300 individuals per square kilometre in 1980 to 20 to 60 individuals today. A conservation programme Selamatkan Yaki - or "Save the Yaki" as this macaque is known in the local language - has been launched with local partners and other conservation groups from Thailand, Germany and the Wildlife Conservation Society (based in USA). Both Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo are among a number of mostly European zoos which hold ex-situ breeding populations of this animal.

Since 2006, the Macaca Nigra Project studies the biology and promotes the conservation of this species. The project, a collaboration between the German Primate Center and the Bogor Agricultural Institute, run by Antje Engelhardt, is located in the Tangkoko reserve, home of the biggest crested macaque population remaining in the species' original distribution range.