Despite the reported global population decline of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the native monkey population in the Philippines remains “healthy” and “strong,” an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently listed the Nicobar long-tailed macaque and all its subspecies, the Philippine long-tailed macaque included, to “vulnerable” from its previous listing of “near threatened” owing to the drastic decline in numbers of over 30 percent throughout its range in the last 36 to 39 years.
The IUCN assessment noted that “the species is hunted for food and captured live for research and sport hunting.”
The Nicobar long-tailed macaque is a subspecies of the crab-eating macaque, endemic to the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
Environment Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon maintained that based on the country’s own listing, the Philippine long-tailed macaque is “nonthreatened” as the primate is thriving in many areas.
“This [IUCN’s latest listing] may be true in other countries, but in the Philippines, we still have a healthy population of long-tailed macaques,” said Calderon, the concurrent director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB). “It is not on our list of threatened species.”
He cited DENR Administrative Order 2019-09 dated July 12, 2019, or the updated National List of Threatened Philippine Fauna and their categories. The DENR through the BMB regularly updates the National List of Threatened Species.
The list includes all threatened species depending on their conservation status.
Critically endangered species refers to those facing extinction, while endangered species are those whose survival in the wild is unlikely if causal factors continue operating.
A vulnerable species, meanwhile, refers to those that are neither critically endangered nor endangered but are under threat from adverse factors throughout its range.
Threatened species refers to those not critically endangered, endangered nor vulnerable but under threat from adverse factors, such as over collection.
The Philippine long-tailed macaques are known inhabitants of the forests, and they exist on the three major island groups in the country, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Sightings of native monkeys in tourist spots, such as in Palawan, are well-known as they even become part of the tourism attraction.
Just recently, a troop of the native monkeys was caught by a camera trap, in the Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal.
Around five monkeys suddenly appeared in the “Sapot,” one of the facilities in the low-impact tourism cum conservation area.
Small mammals, including Philippine long-tailed macaques, love exploring the low-impact trail highlights of Masungi, many of which use biomimicry to reflect the natural character of the landscape.
Monkeys are also commonly spotted in beaches near and inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales.
Image credits: Wikimedia Commons