Human tourists share space with, touch, feed, and otherwise interact with Macaca at multiple locations. Across Asia and stretching to Gibraltar and Northern Africa, macaques form a substantial tourist attraction as their ranges become increasingly coincident with human use zones. Residing in or as tourist attractions, macaques frequently generate economic benefits to local humans and compete with them for habitat and specific resources. In addition, health conflicts may emerge from increased overlap and interactions between humans and macaques. There is only a handful of studies on the impact, structure, context, and cultural ecology of macaque tourist sites. We provide a general overview of 2 macaque tourist sites, one in Padangtegal, Bali, Indonesia and one in Gibraltar. Qualitative assessment reveals variability in behavioral, ecological, economic, and politically relevant facets of macaque tourism. Specifically, differences in aggression during interactions, potential health dangers, economic factors, and local human perceptions between Padangtegal and Gibraltar suggest that qualitative assessments can assist in our construction of broader models and conceptualizations of the interaction context.

Interactions with humans impact many aspects of behavior and ecology in nonhuman primates. Because of the complexities of the human-nonhuman primate interface, methods are needed to quantify the effects of anthropogenic interactions, including their intensity and differential impacts between nonhuman primate groups. Stable isotopes can be used to quickly and economically assess intergroup dietary variation, and provide a framework for the development of specific hypotheses about anthropogenic impact. This study uses stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to examine intraspecific variation in diet between five groups of Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus, in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve, Gibraltar. Analysis of hair from 135 macaques showed significant differences in δ(13)C and δ(15)N values between a group with minimal tourist contact and groups that were main tourist attractions. Because we observed no overt physiological or substantial behavioral differences between the groups, feeding ecology is the most likely cause of any differences in stable isotope ratios. Haphazard provisioning by tourists and Gibraltarians is a likely source of dietary variation between groups. Stable isotope analysis and observational data facilitate a deeper understanding of the feeding ecology of the Barbary macaques relevant to the role of an anthropogenic ecology for the species.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Because Gibraltar's macaques (Macaca sylvanus) have frequent contact with humans, we assayed 79 macaques for antibodies to enzootic primate viruses. All macaques were seronegative for herpesvirus B, simian T-cell lymphotropic virus, simian retrovirus, simian immunodeficiency virus, and rhesus cytomegalovirus. Seroprevalence of simian foamy virus reached 88% among adult animals.

No abstract