Taiwanese Officials Respond to IPPI News Article

April 2003

The November issue of IPPL News carried an article about the capture of Formosan macaques on Mount Longevity. Mount Longevity is part of Tzaishan Park on the western edge of the city of Kaohsiung in the south of the island of Taiwan.

The article was written by Dr. G. Agoramoorthy, who has conducted a long-term study of the macaques living on the mountain. He was distressed by the reportedly traumatic capture of monkeys and expressed concern that the monkeys might be sent to laboratories or zoos. As a result of the IPPL article, two Taiwanese officials provided further information, which is extracted below.

Mayor says Formosan macaque "not endangered"

The Formosan macaque, the only monkey species native to Taiwan, is listed as "Vulnerable" in the IUCN Red Data Book. However, Frank Chang-ting Hsieh, Mayor of Kaohsiung, informed IPPL that the species is "far from being in danger of extinction in Taiwan."

The Mayor further stated that "violent macaques" with "a tendency to attack mountain hikers" have indeed been removed from Mount Longevity and sent to "the campus of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology." He noted that the testing conducted on the animals consisted of routine health examinations. No biomedical research was involved.

Mayor Hsieh stated that the capture program, which was "highly acclaimed by the public," has ceased.

Forestry Department comments

Dr. Chien-Hsing Lai, Director-General of Taiwan's Forestry Department, also commented, writing:
Over 500,000 people visit Mt. Longevity's nature park every year...Many visitors fed monkeys for the past 15 to 20 years. As a result the population increased from less than 50 monkeys 20 years ago to over 700 animals today...In 2001, the [Kaohsiung] city government also enacted a regulation banning the feeding, contacting, or other behaviors that are harmful to the monkeys at Mount Longevity.

Lai added that a total of 17 monkeys was removed from Mt. Longevity. They were tested at Pingtung University for dengue fever, because a 2001 outbreak of this disease had affected humans in Kaohsiung. The monkeys were also tested for tuberculosis and hepatitis B. All tested negative. No monkeys were transferred to research laboratories. Instead they were sent to the Pingtung Rescue Center for Endangered Animals, part of Pingtung University.

Rescue and "re-homing"

Lai noted that the Pingtung Rescue Center had "re-homed" some of its rescued animals.

Among the overseas recipients of animals were: the Kalimantan Orangutan Rehabilitation Project in Indonesia (orangutans); the Sra Kaew Zoo in Lopburi, Thailand (one orangutan); Jungle Kingdom in Islamabad, Pakistan (tigers); Taiping Zoo in Malaysia (orangutans); the Nehru Zoo in India (Malayan sun bears); and Monkey World in England (gibbons and orangutans).

Lai emphasized:
None of the above facilities or other zoological parks request for Formosan macaques.

Mr. Lai stressed Taiwan's commitment to the protection of macaques, but stated that the capture of the monkeys was in compliance with Taiwan's law. He noted that human-monkey conflict happens because:
Taiwan is a small island and its population density is the second highest in the world. The area of Taiwan is about 36,000 square kilometers and our population density is 616 persons per square kilometer. It is extremely difficult to avoid human-wildlife conflict, especially in places adjacent to an urban area such as the nature park at Mt. Longevity.

IPPL representative investigates

Charles Shuttleworth, IPPL's Field Representative for Taiwan, looked into the Mt. Longevity situation following the controversy over the article. He learned that the monkeys sent to Pingtung were caught by the use of wire snares, "similar to motorcycle cables," and that the snares were "baited with bananas."

The snared monkeys were tranquilized by a veterinarian and sent to Pingtung Rescue Center, to be tested for a variety of diseases. After two months in quarantine, the monkeys were transferred to spacious cages at the center.

Shared concerns

Shuttleworth shared Dr. Agoramoorthy's concern regarding the inadequate conditions at Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung. He reported that the macaques, orangutans, and gibbons are "very badly housed in old-fashioned cages, gloomy, dank, and without sunlight, more suitable for reptiles."

An improved unit for the Sulawesi crested macaques has been built, but is not yet occupied. Other than the primates, Shuttleworth reported that the Shoushan Zoo animals were adequately housed.

Shuttleworth noted with regret that human-monkey problems continue at Mount Longevity:

Visitors to the Tzaishan Park are still feeding the macaques and slingshots are being used to maim them. Both fruit and slingshots are openly sold at the entrance to the park. There is no enforcement of the laws and regulations forbidding this...There is no doubt that illegal trapping and maiming of macaques is still going on in the park and that iron traps are also being used.

However there is no evidence that this is the work of the Pingtung Rescue Center other than the fact that personnel of the center have been observed in the area...

Pingtung Rescue Center

Shuttleworth praised the Pingtung Rescue Center, opened in 1996, for its spacious enclosures and the excellent care provided to its animals. According to its Web site, the Center released around 40 Formosan macaques on Sijiaoyu Island in the Penghu (Pescadores) islands, where they adjusted well. Shuttleworth reports that, following complaints about the monkeys from fishermen, the animals were recaptured and returned to the center.

Shuttleworth concluded:
We found a marked lack of communication between a number of agencies supposedly engaged in the same field of endeavor...A committee composed of representatives of all agencies involved meeting regularly would go a long way toward alleviating the situation...Dr. Agoramoorthy feels very strongly that macaques in the wild should not be trapped, whereas the government, faced with the responsibility towards its citizens, feels that some of them must be. It is a dilemma that is facing all concerned with wildlife conservation in Taiwan.