Home Range Characteristics of Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis Raffles 1821) on Tinjil Island, Pandeglang, Banten. Department of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecotourism. Faculty of Forestry.

Abstract

Long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis Raffles 1821) is one of primate species found in Indonesia. The species is frequently used as pets and laboratory animal for biomedical purposes. However, the need of this long-tailed macaque is generally fulfilled with direct capture from the wild (Supriatna & Wahyono 2000). This wild capture is one of the threat for the population of the species. Therefore, it needs an conservation effort to overcome this threat, such as establishing a captive breeding. One of the captive breeding that has been established to preserve the sustainability of long-tailed macaque is a semi natural captive breeding on Tinjil Island. In semi natural captive breeding, habitat management is one of the most important activities to ensure the success of captive breeding. One of the most important information in habitat management of long-tailed macaque on Tinjil Island is its home range. By knowing this information, it can be determined the appropriate habitat management. The purpose of this study was to determine home range characteristics of long-tailed macaques on Tinjil Island. The research was conducted in Semi Natural Captive Breeding of Tinjil Island, Pandeglang, Banten from June to August 2009. Home range data was formulated based on daily range of long-tailed macaque, obtained by the group follows method at its active time. The result showed that the home range of long-tailed macaques on Tinjil Island occupied coastal forest ecosystem type and lowland rainforest. The crown stratification was dominated by strata C. The long-tailed macaques used different conditions of crown closures (dense and less dense crown closures) for their daily activities. The species of plants that has been used as food sources consist of 25 species. The high preferences of food consist of Baringtonia asiatica, Antidesma bunius, Ficus variegata, Ardisia humilis, Ficus sp., Manilkara kauki, and Hibiscus tiliaceus. The water that is used by long-tailed macaques comes from various sources (rain-water in the slot of trees, water from containers placed by field staff, water from the tap around the Basecamp and from the fruits and leaves). The average estimation home range for long-tailed macaque is 6.9 ha.