Human-Monkey Conflicts in Sri Lanka: A Comment on Dittus et al., 2019

Dittus et al. [Folia Primatologica 2019;90: 89 –108] discuss conflicts in Sri Lanka between people and 4 subspecies of purple-faced langurs, 3 subspecies of toque macaques and a single grey langur subspecies. All of these subspecies are endemic and also listed by the IUCN as endangered or threatened with extinction due to extensive deforestati on. Nevertheless, in order to mitigate conflicts with macaques, the above article recommended buffer zones that “should be at least 100–200 m wide, devoid of trees, shrubs and food sources: pasture could serve this purpose” [Dittus et al., 2019, p. 100]. This recommendation is presented withou t an explicit statement that buffer zones should not be carved out of existing primate habitats. Therefore, it could be misused by corrupt politicians and timber contractors to justify deforestation, even by expanding existing pastures that do not meet the width specifications prescribed by the arti cle. These actions could undermine the survival of both langurs that rely exclusively on a vegetarian diet. Therefore, in my opinion, buffer zones as proposed by Dittus et al. [2019] are not a valid recommendation to mitigate human-monkey conflicts (HMCs) in Sri Lanka. I consider several other state ments in the article also to have questionable relevance to mitigating HMCs in Sri Lanka. However, I discuss a commercially viable activity reported by Dittus et al. [2019] that could be used to mitigate HMCs and also promote monkey conservation in ...
Source: Folia Primatologica - Category: Physiology Source Type: research