David - A beautiful Tonkean Macaque

Kerrie Grant, University of New England, Australia
August 2004

In early 2004 Ms. Grant was studying on Sulawesi, a large island in Indonesia formerly known as the Celebes when she met a monkey held captive in a village. Here is the story of David.

While in Central Sulawesi to conduct ethno-archaeological research, I reached Kalumpang Village where I would be living for the next six weeks. One of my first thoughts was, "I hope there are no monkeys here." Unfortunately, there were.

"David" was a young male Tonkean macaque (Macaca tonkeana) of about eight months of age and the first of many captive Sulawesi macaques I was to see during my fieldwork. Previously known as "Celebes apes," these monkeys became a common sight in the villages I visited along the Karama River.

The monkey was nicknamed after a friend of mine, David Lucas, known to many IPPL readers from his time as the manager of the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon. I was told that David had been in the village for about three months. The monkey David’s mother had been shot for bushmeat a few kilometers upstream from the village and David had been sold to a local storekeeper.

David attracts children to this local store, where they shout at him, scream every time he moves, and throw stones at him. I sat down beside him and hand-fed him fruit and bread. This brought the entire village out, including the village chief and his family. I tried to explain that he was just a baby and that he would not harm them. The term "gila" was thrown around, this being the local word for "crazy". I think they were referring to me and not the monkey!

In an effort to promote education, over the next few weeks my mantra became "Bidan dari kera sama-sama orang. Perlu makanan dan minum." Translation: "Body of monkey same as person. Need food and drink."

I gained gasps when I let David drink water from a plastic container and got puzzled looks when I tried to explain that he could not live on empty candy wrappers and depleted corn husks. I was told constantly that "Kera tidak baik" (monkey no good), "kera tidak perlu untuk minum" (monkey no need for drink), and "kera akan curi" (monkey will steal).

I tried to explain he would not hurt them if he were approached quietly. In fact, compared with the primates I know best (chimpanzees and gibbons), he is one of the calmest primates I have ever interacted with, especially considering his environment.

The forests of Sulawesi have the highest number of "endemic" (found in no other country or island) mammals in the Indo-Pacific region. Macaques have radiated, and there are more species on Sulawesi than on any other comparable area of land. Little research has been conducted on Sulawesi’s macaques and their environment. There are possibly seven subspecies of these macaques, but only the Sulawesi black crested macaque (Macaca nigra) has been studied in any detail.

Agricultural expansion, logging, mining, hunting and human-induced fires have all increased greatly since then, especially in the southwest region of the island. In 1994, the Tonkean macaque was upgraded to "Endangered" status on the World Conservation Union’s "Red List" of endangered species, as was the black crested macaque.

Life for David is fairly miserable. He spends his day tied to a bamboo pole under a huge mango tree on the edge of a large playing field in the middle of the village. During the wet season, the mangoes fall. If David is quick enough he can grab them before the children rush in and take them. I watched one day when several mangoes fell at once. David ran around grabbing and taking small bites out of each of them before running to the next one! He has learned that the children won’t take the ones he has bitten!

In the afternoons, the cows and buffalos join him under his tree to get out of the hot sun. Dogs roam by randomly and play with David. In fact, as macaques are very social animals, it did not seem surprising that there was one dog David appeared to particularly like. He always seemed quite depressed when this animal left after play.

David was offered to me in exchange for money. I was not so irresponsible as to accept the offer for fear it would encourage more trade in monkeys. However, I realized that the village was willing for me to have him. I began to try to find out about rehabilitation centers on the island for these primates.

Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any conservation groups present on Sulawesi. I was told that WWF had a field office in Makassar but that it was only staffed "a few days a month when the man comes from Jakarta". I even searched for a possible local zoo population but the Makassar Zoo collapsed some years ago. Back in Australia, I have had no success in finding any places that deal with wildlife rescue or rehabilitation on Sulawesi.

My travels along the Karama River took me to a number of other villages. Our primary research was not on primates, but I soon learned the look my interpreters would give me as they spied another one of these monkeys tied to a tree or being dragged on a leash. Every village seemed to have these black macaques.

As I traveled further downstream toward the sea, small logging camps began to appear, growing ever larger as we approached the mouth of the river. In what appeared to be pristine forest, we could hear chainsaws. Huge areas cleared for agriculture also began to pop up along the banks of the river. As people had cleared right to the water’s edge, the river had carved into these areas as massive erosion was taking hold along the banks. There are still large tracts of primary forest here and wildlife is sometimes seen, but the encroachment of human destruction is very evident.

As the time for me to leave drew closer, the village chief "presented" David to me. I had to refuse, as there was no responsible facility for him to go to. Of course, ideas like helping him "escape accidentally" went through my mind, but not only was he too young to survive on his own but more importantly, if he were to make contact with a wild group and was accepted, I didn’t know what human viruses he might be carrying.

Leaving him was going to be very difficult.

A number of the villagers began feeding him and enjoying seeing him "smile", which in fact was a fear grimace toward a larger primate. In this case, I decided that giving out the correct information was not in David’s interests. Promises were made that they would feed him until my return later this year. I thought about giving one or two people funds to buy food for him but decided that this just incites more trade.

I hope to be checking in on him soon. One part of me wants to see his "smiling" face again. On the other hand, the life he has now is not worthy of such a magnificent creature and maybe it would be better for him if he has finally found peace.