Perception on long-tailed macaques as public nuisance from the visitors and residents in Gaya Island national park

• Main Authors: A.J. Embug, Jepthe Sompud, Chin, Su Na, R. Repin, A. Tinggi, K.J.P. Chyi
• Format: Proceedings
• Language: English; English
• Published: Faculty of Science and Natural Resources 2020
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QL Zoology
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23521/1/Perception%20on%20long-tailed%20macaques%20as%20public%20nuisance%20from%20the%20visitors%20and%20residents%20in%20Gaya%20Island%20national%20park.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23521/2/Perception%20on%20long-tailed%20macaques%20as%20public%20nuisance%20from%20the%20visitors%20and%20residents%20in%20Gaya%20Island%20national%20park1.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/23521/; https://www.ums.edu.my/fssa/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/PROCEEDINGS-BOOK-ST-2020-e-ISSN.pdf

Animals living in urban areas will eventually interact with humans at some times in their lives due to the ever increasing of human population in the world. The increasing number of visitor in Gaya Island is leading to more human-macaque interaction. This can lead to negative interaction or conflict. There are many reported incident involving macaque attack in Gaya Island causing the park management to take action against the problematic macaque. This study aims to explore perceptions of visitors and the resident’s staff on long-tailed Macaques as Public Nuisance in Gaya Island National Park. This study was conducted in Padang Point and Based Camp of Gaya Island. A convenience sampling survey using standards questionnaire was used for visitors. For resident staff, all of them were interviewed using the same standard questionnaire used for the visitors. The questionnaire consisted of demographic information of the respondent and the perception on long tailed macaque as a public nuisance. The data collection was conducted from May to September 2019. Descriptive analysis was performed for demographic information and the perception of respondents. There were a total of 403 respondents, of which 380 were visitors and 23 were residents staff. The visitor respondent consisted of Malaysian and non-Malaysian. The residents staff were all Malaysian. The result shows that 88% of the visitor’s view that long-tailed macaque was not a public nuisance. There were only 26% of the residents’ staff perceived that long-tailed macaques was not public nuisance. The respondent’s perception on long-tailed macaque as public nuisance was influenced by the number of days spent in Gaya Island National Park.