After residents in Port Dickson claimed that the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) had shot and killed 20 dusky leaf monkeys last month, the agency responded by saying the monkeys were aggressive and a disturbance to residents.
Perhilitan also said only seven monkeys were shot and only after an unsuccessful attempt to relocate them, an account residents have since disputed.
To Mariani Ramli, the president of the Gibbon Conservation Society, that was no excuse for their actions. She said there are a host of other solutions to keep wildlife and humans separate and culling should not be part of the wildlife control body’s arsenal, even as a last resort.
“Culling is a superficial response to human-wildlife conflicts,” she told FMT. “It does not solve the root cause of the problem.
“Thinking that culling is an effective solution will only allow the same issue to arise over and over again.”
She said reducing the population of the endangered dusky leaf monkeys, or spectacled langurs, could have a devastating effect on forests and surrounding communities.
“The langurs’ roles range from being seed dispersers to helping with the nutrient cycling of topsoil, all of which help in maintaining a balanced, healthy forest ecosystem as well as in facilitating the regeneration of new forests,” she said.
“The consequence of their extinction in Malaysia is unimaginable. It will ripple out to contribute to disastrous events like floods, food shortages, global warming, and other environmental complications.”
Statistics on the number of dusky leaf monkeys killed are unclear, but Perhilitan’s annual reports show that the practice of killing animals to aid in human-animal conflict resolution is not uncommon.
In 2018 alone, 53,687 long-tailed macaques were killed under the practice. Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature eventually downgraded the species from “least concerned” to “vulnerable”.
Mariani said the management of wildlife could be better done by capturing problematic animals reported to the authorities and rehabilitating them before release.
She said sterilisation would be an option in the effort to reduce aggression and control population growth.
“People in areas bordering forests can also be better educated through public awareness campaigns. People shouldn’t feed animals or leave rubbish exposed as both practices will attract animals and cause more interactions.”
She said planning authorities could also construct wildlife corridors so that animals would not need to pass through human settlements when moving between habitats.
“Monkey herding has also been tried by Singaporean researchers,” she said. “Trained personnel would carry objects to intimidate the monkeys and herd or shoo them away from residential premises.”