| Abstrak/Abstract |
Aggressivity level of Long-Tailed Macaque (Macaca Fascicularis) and visitors’ perception in Tlogo Muncar Kaliurang, Taman Nasional Gunung Merapi After Two Years of Covid-19 andemic
G Y Anugrah1
, D W Kusindarta1
, T Budipitojo1
, H Wijayanto1*
1Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Gadjah
Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281
*Corresponding author: herykh@ugm.ac.id
Abstract Long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) has good interaction and
adaptation ability, as we found at Tlogo Muncar area, Kaliurang, Yogyakarta, which is
accustomed to visitors. Often food provision by visitors is hypothesized initiates
aggressive behavior on long-tailed macaque. Three groups of macaques identified at
Tlogo Muncar, that are Kelompok Air Terjun, Kelompok Joglo Trubus, and Kelompok
Mushola. The study aimed to understand visitors’ perceptions and the aggression level
of long-tailed macaque at Tlogo Muncar area, Merapi Mount National Park (Taman
Nasional Gunung Merapi) after two years of closure the area caused by COVID-19
pandemic. Observations were conducted using scan sampling method and continued by
focal sampling. According to Wijayanto (2015), aggressiveness of long-tailed macaque
can be divided into 4 categories, aggressive 1: dare to approach, potentially attack
physically and steal goods or food from the front, aggressive 2: steal goods or food from
behind or side, aggressive 3: steal goods or food when the visitor is off guard, and
aggressive 4: dare to approach when fed and only look for food waste in the dump. The
research on visitors’ perceptions was conducted by randomly distributing
questionnaires to 100 respondents. The result showed that aggressive behavior level 1
was generally carried out by adult male long-tailed macaque. However, aggressive
behavior mainly occurs only if they are fed by visitors and are looking for the leftover
food (aggressive 4). The questionnaire results indicate a decrease in respondents'
understanding of disease transmission from long-tailed monkeys to humans compare to
the 2021 questionnaire result. However, most of the visitors agreed that the interaction
between human and long-tailed macaque should be limited to a specific location within
the area.
Keywords: Aggressive behavior, Long-tailed macaques, Perception of interaction, Tlogo Muncar, |
