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THE CRESTED-BLACK macaque shot to fame when one of the monkeys snapped grinning selfies and became embroiled in a US court battle – but the tussle over copyright is the least of the rare animal’s worries.
In a remote corner of their native Indonesia, amid smoking volcanoes and dense jungles, the monkeys face a far greater threat as they are aggressively hunted to be eaten.
“In other places some macaque species are facing extinction because of shrinking habitat,” Yunita Siwi from Selamatkan Yaki, a foundation that campaigns to protect the primate, told AFP.
But here the habitat is getting smaller – and people are eating the monkeys.
Authorities and activists are stepping up efforts to persuade villagers on Sulawesi island to stop consuming the critically endangered monkeys, one of many exotic creatures that form part of the local indigenous community’s diet.
The animal, whose scientific name is Macaca nigra, is part of a kaleidoscope of exotic wildlife found across Indonesia, including tigers and orangutans, who face a range of threats from poachers to the destruction of their habitat.
On a recent trip to Sulawesi’s Tangkoko nature reserve, some of the amber-eyed, black-haired macaques, known in the local language as “yaki”, frolicked in a small river while others climbed palm trees and knocked coconuts to the ground.
Among those living in Tangkoko is Naruto, who shot to fame after grabbing a British wildlife photographer’s camera and snapping some selfies.
The pictures led to a legal fight after animal rights activists PETA brought the case to a San Francisco court arguing that Naruto should own the copyright – a claim rejected by a judge last year.
The approximately 2,000 monkeys living in the 8,800-hectare (21,750-acre) reserve enjoy protection because they are in a restricted area, but that is not the case for about 3,000 others estimated to be in jungles elsewhere in the province of North Sulawesi.
‘Tasty like dog’
The macaque’s meat is prized by the ethnic Minahasan people, a largely Christian group in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, who have no reservation about eating exotic animals, unlike Indonesia’s Islamic communities.
“I like the taste, hot and spicy, it is similar to wild boar or dog,” Nita, a 32-year-old local Minahasan who gave only her first name, told AFP.
At a market in Tomohon city, a stomach-churning array of burnt, mutilated animals were on offer.
Black crested macaques – flame-roasted and whole, with pained grimaces etched on their faces – were on tables for sale alongside piles of sliced-open pythons, burnt bats and dogs.
The macaques and some other animals at the market are protected by Indonesian law and officials have in the past raided the site, leading to violent clashes with vendors.
But the trade in exotic creatures was still booming during a recent visit, with some local travel agents even offering tours to adventurous foreign travellers.
The demand for the meat has prompted Minahasan hunters to go far and wide in search of the macaque, heading in pickups to remote parts of the island.
‘Nail in coffin’
The population of Macaca nigra in its natural habitat on Sulawesi has dropped more than 80% in four decades, from an estimated 300 per square kilometre (0.4 square miles) in 1980 to just 45 per square kilometre in 2011, researchers say.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the monkey as critically endangered. As well as being threatened by their status as a local delicacy, the monkey’s natural habitat is being destroyed by expansion of settlements and agricultural lands.
As the population has fallen, the local wildlife protection agency and activists have started campaigning to save them.
Tents manned by activists explaining that the monkey is protected have been set up at local markets, while billboards have been put up by roadsides to warn people that they face up to five years in jail if they hunt the creatures.
NGOs and the local government have pushed schools to include lessons on conservation, including about the Macaca nigra, in their curriculum.
Campaigners have also reached out to churches in the mainly Christian area to urge priests to preach that humans are the guardians of Earth and must protect endangered creatures like the monkeys, said activist Siwi.
They are also seeking to highlight the macaques’ key role in supporting biodiversity. As they swing through the jungle canopy, the macaques disperse seeds and encourage growth of some trees, according to Stephan Lentey of the Macaca Nigra Project NGO.
But campaigners warn that villagers’ hunger for the meat heaps extra pressure on a creature already threatened by habitat loss.
Hunting the animals for food “is the final nail in the coffin for a dwindling population,” said Simon Purser of the Sulawesi-based Tasikoki wildlife rescue centre.
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let me make a prediction here..12 points to Cyprus in the next Eurovision from Greece
@Dean Anderson:
Nice idea for a comment but I think you need to understand the politics of the region a little more before trying to be humerous
Maybe they don’t call it anything but “Skopje Airport”? I never understood the need cities have to “name” airports in cities where there is only one airport of note. No one ever ends up using the name anyway.
@Gerard:
Do you fly to JFK or to New York?
@Nick Allen: “ I never understood the need cities have to “name” airports in cities where there is only ONE airport of note”
@PScald:
What other airports are u referring to? Are u thinking about ones in New Jersey, the state south of New York?
@Nick Allen: La Guardia (Queens).
@Nick Allen: LaGuardia airport is also in NYC…
@Nick Allen: Liverpool have John Lennon airport, let’s talk about that.
@Gerard: Naming an airport after a local legend or leader is sometimes a nice thing to do to remember someone important to the city or location… George Best, JFK, Charles De Gualle, Trudeau etc…
Must be a great insult to the people of Macedonia to have Colin Farnell as it’s poster boy.
You have to go with the Greeks on this one. It’s blatant cultural appropriation. Something like 85% of ancient Macedonia is within modern day Greece including Pella and all major cities. Considering how the British and Turks have plundered their tangible heritage and they were already arguing with Albania over who “owned” Alexander (his mother was from Epirus, modern day Albania) you can see why they weren’t going to let their new neighbours pass off Greek culture as their own.
@Seán J. Troy:
Most people know that our republic, whose constitutional name is “Ireland”, is not the same as the island of Ireland. Therefore, we may assume that most people know that the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia is not the same as the ancient region of Macedonia. After all, as far as I know, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia does not have an equivalent of our Republic’s claim over Northern Ireland, which was renounced by referendum as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
@Ciarán Masterson: I don’t think that’s a fair assumption at all. Most people don’t realise Macedonians are basically ethnic Bulgarians. They literally have no ties to ancient Macedonia.
There is a claim of Greater Macedonia over regions of neighbouring countries which speak their dialect of Bulgarian.
Spot on, Mr Troy.
@Seán J. Troy: what a f….ck are you talking we are Macedonian not Bulgarians we spoke different language’s different alfabet it’s England and Ireland same for you to ??? Answer your self
@Seán J. Troy: Macedonians are ethnic Bulgarians? Most people are right not to realise it considering you’ve got it more ways than arse. Macedonian-Bulgarians, a minority group in Bulgaria, trace their heritage to the region of Macedonia in Greece, not the Former Yugoslav Republic.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: The languages are mutually intelligible and as late as 1880 there were attempts at codification. Similar attempts were made in Greece and Germany to standardise their own dialects. This didn’t happen in the FYROM because Bulgaria was independent and the area now called the FYROM was still part of the Ottoman Empire.
The modern “Macedonian” orthography along with the usage of the term Macedonian only dates to 1945. Until then it was just considered a dialect of Bulgarian.
The point is that if it weren’t for politics, we wouldn’t be making a distinction just like we no longer make a distinction between high and low German or Katharevousa/Demotiki. There have always been regional differences within the same language groups in the past.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin:
The entire situation would be similar to German codification having never happened and Austria as in our timeline not being included in Bismarck’s greater Germany. Then after WW1 ethnic Austrians calling themselves Roman and calling themselves the descendants of the Roman empire while pretending they aren’t a German people.
Technically, parts of Austria were in the Roman empire.
@Seán J. Troy: A Macedonian national identity emerged in the 19th century, long before 1945. Remember, there was no such thing as an Italian national identity before the 1860s, or it was very rare at the least. Likewise, Germans identified as Bavarians, Prussians, etc prior to the middle of the 19th century. The Macedonian language is further removed from Bulgarian than Slovakian is from Polish, yet I don’t hear you saying that Slovakians are actually Polish.
On top of that, the area they live in is called Macedonia. There is no misappropriation of heritage by naming your country after the area in which it is situated. Erasing “Macedonia” as a geographical entity could also, hypothetically, be seen by some as attempting to erase Greek heritage. Basically, the modern Macedonians are in a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t situation all while Bulgarians and Greeks belittle them. Ever wonder why they see themselves as Macedonian and not Bulgarian? Partly, it’s because Bulgarians see them as unworthy Bulgarians, and then the Greeks like to take advantage for political reasons. But also because they have a history different from Bulgarians and a culture also different from Bulgarians.
If there is no claim over the historical region of Macedonia in the constitution of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia then the Greeks have no justification for being obstructive. The Greeks ran their own country into the ground with their tax evasion and laziness.
@Ciarán Masterson: What right do they have to call themselves Macedonia? They’ve only been doing so within living memory. They have no linguistic ties, very little territorial ties and the so-called Macedonian people have only lived in the Balkans 1,000 years or so after Alexander died.
They are Bulgarian who were called Macedonian by a Serbian government trying to coerce them into a federal Yugoslavia rather than harbour claims to a Greater Bulgaria.
It’s nice to hear that somewhere in the world, political leaders are putting their heads together to solve age old issues by compromising and moving on. A thoroughly mature, adult solution. Well done to the parties involved. You are an inspiration.
Alexander the deadly airport
I see parallels with this country: some up north deny being Irish yet claim names and symbols, such as ‘Ulster’ and ‘Cu Chulainn’ as their own.
Just call it “Alexander the Bleedin Deadly” airport.
Sorted lads !
They can call themselves whatever they want – the trick is getting other people to call you what you want.
Macedonia have surrendered acknowledging their history in recent years to plaw maus the Greeks into not blocking their application for EU membership. Humiliating
Aviva doesn’t sponsor the country, but if they did…
Wasn’t he famously rogering his manservant? (Alexander i mean, not Farrell)
Liked his fisting cuffs did Alex.
Greece and England what is a different
@Zoran Markoski: a lot
There will be zero tolerance with FYROM. If Zaev wanted to mend relations with Greece he would have announced the demolition of the grotesque Italian made Hellenic reproduction statues that litter the FYROM landscape, the renaming of the airport in Skopje, the renaming of the highway, the renaming of the football stadium, the removal of the repulsive Baroque Hellenic style facades, the correcting of school carriculum, the removal of the Hellenic symbol on the national flag, the removal of all greater Macedonia maps from government institutions and a heartfelt apolgy to the nation of Greece for his nation being vile for the last two and a half decades. Cultural theft cannot be forgiven easily. Actions speak louder than words. Greeks do not want to hear politicians trying new age diplomacy that they learnt in their political science classes. Dimitrov, Šekerinska, Zaevand all the Slavic Fyromians currently running FYROM are just as dogmatic about an exclusivity of the name as the Gruevski ultra nationalists. There is no scope for negotiation with these antiques. Greece is the victim here. Our history has been hijacked by Fyromian Slavs. Leave our history alone. It’s not a good fit for you. You cannot pronounce nor read the Ancient inscriptions for they are in Greek. If FYROM wants exclusivity to the name Macedonia they will have to change their official language to Greek for this corresponds with the Ancient Macedonian language. We Greeks embrace everyone as a Hellene as long as they speak Greek. You cannot have Bulgarian speaking Slavs of FYROM claiming they are Antiques. It’s ridiculous.
Sekerinska can sit around bagging the VMRO for their crimes but she is just as bad. She claims she is a Slav and a non Antique and in the same breath attacks Greece for not recognizing FYROM. I thought that her hair incident would have knocked some sense into her. Dimitrov has also had a go at it. The fool was part of the negotiation team under Gruevski. He failed miserably because he too will never give up the name. These Slavs are like a dog with a bone but in their case the bone is plastic and has zero marrow.
They know what they have to do and it will never happen. The constitutional name will not change because the antiquated population of FYROM will never vote for it. They have had way too many history lessons from Milenko Nedelkovski. The vile sneaky tactics of attempting to be admitted to NATO and the EU under their provisional FYROM name won’t work either. They are fruitless attempts at diplomacy that not only waste time but also soak up tax payers efforts. Think twice FYROM before attempting negotiations with the Greeks on their history. The Albanian, Roma and Turkish birth rate is twice that of the Slavs. While you lot are busy fixating about exclusivity of your name and your antique culture the non Slavic population of FYROM will become a majority group within their ancient wonderland. The last census was in 2001, these so called minority groups were are 35% collectively. I would hate to think what they are at now. 16 years of fertile breeding has to be worrying for the new government. Back off our history you deluded farm animals.
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