Roadside provisioning threatens both humans and monkeys

Abstract

In the past 10 years, the number of unmanaged or incidental provisioned monkey sites has significantly increased in Asian countries, including Indonesia. Provisioning generally takes place at the roadside (Ilham, per obs. 2018; Riley, Shaffer & Trinidad, 2021), and researchers have highlighted the risks associated with provisioning monkeys. For example, food provisioning can change monkeys’ demography, behavior and ecology and is seen as one of the main drivers of conflicts with humans (Sha & Hanya, 2013; Sengupta, Widayati & Tsuji, 2021). Furthermore, provisioning can promote disease transmission between species and enhance human-directed aggression by monkeys (Fuentes & Gamerl, 2005; Maréchal et al., 2016). In addition, provisioning can have far-reaching consequences, particularly when it occurs along highways. Road traffic accidents (RTAs) have become a growing issue in Indonesia; however, the extent to which roadside provisioning affects RTAs has not been reported. In this article, I give a wider understanding of the significant impact of roadside provisioning monkeys (Long-tailed macaques Macaca fascicularis) in Gunung Meru, West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Recognized as a famous monkey site, Gunung Meru (hereafter: GM) is visited by at least one thousand tourists every month (Ilham, Nurdin & Rizaldi, 2017). Provisioning is a major tourist attraction because people want to interact closely with the monkeys (Fig. 1a). Occasional road accidents, because of monkey provisioning, have been previously observed, but now seem to be increasing. My short observation in April 2022 documented 16 RTAs involving 13 individuals of monkeys. Of these, three monkeys were killed, and the other 10 were seriously injured. The RTAs occurred when the monkeys crossed the road to obtain food from the coming visitors. Most accidents were caused by motorcycles, three cases by cars, and one involved a bus/truck. Nearly, all monkeys hit by a car or a truck were killed instantly. Meanwhile, two people were seriously injured after colliding with a monkey and falling off their motorcycle. I also recorded three visitors being badly injured when hit by passing vehicles while feeding the monkeys. This was most likely to happen when people tried to avoid aggressive monkeys by running/moving to the roadside. RTAs often occur in the evening following the peak hours of tourist visitation.

My data suggest that RTAs at GM have become a serious risk to both people and monkeys. It is a major cause of mortality for the monkeys at this site, while potentially affecting visitor safety. The combination of large numbers of tourist visitations at a particular time during the day, their behavior interacting with the monkeys, and swiftly moving vehicles are resulting in fatal injuries for both people and monkeys. The foremost factor affecting this phenomenon is the lack of safety guidelines or protocols, feeding stations or park staff intervention. At GM, there is no designated feeding station, and visitors feed the monkeys in a small space beside the road (Fig. 1b). Visitors use both sides of the road to feed the monkeys, prompting the animals to cross the road without paying attention to vehicles speeding through. Provisioning is also concentrated in one area, which leads to increased competition and aggression among the monkeys. When fighting occurs, monkeys frequently come onto the road to avoid aggression and are oblivious to vehicle threats. Furthermore, visitors sometimes leave food at the roadside, which attracts the monkeys to congregate in the middle of the roads (Fig. 1c). Large numbers of visitors at GM have experienced aggression from monkeys and may run onto the road due to their fear of attack. All of these conditions make monkeys and people vulnerable to RTAs.

Given the increase of unmanaged roadside provisioning and associated risks presented above, government and nongovernmental organizations should take this problem seriously. From a conservation point of view, we recommend that local authorities should raise people's awareness through education about the negative consequences of feeding monkeys/animals at the roadside. We also suggest that local authorities provide feeding areas, put speed restrictions in place, manage tourist flow and provide information regarding appropriate behavior while interacting with the monkeys. These interventions may effectively reduce risks of RTAs to monkeys and make roads safer for people. If necessary, roadside provisioning should be banned. RTAs due to roadside provisioning are not restricted to my study area but are a widespread and growing problem (Collinson, Marneweck & Davies-Mostert, 2019). Appropriate mitigation measures need to be implemented along with extensive research to understand the further consequences of roadside provisioning.