Applying social network and personality trait analyses to understanding and managing human-macaque sympatry in urban Singapore

The need to understand and manage human-primate sympatry is growing in tandem with human population expansion and urbanization across primate range countries worldwide (Humle & Hill, 2016). As behaviourally flexible species, some primates thrive in human-altered habitats by adapting to urban spaces and exploiting high-quality anthropogenic foods, but these interactions often result in property damage, economic loss, and health and safety concerns for human communities and pave the way for conflict (Lee & Priston, 2005). Efforts to mitigate problematic interactions such as culling and sterilisation are often implemented with lethal and long-term consequences for the health of wild populations, without effectively resolving problems. In contrast, non-lethal approaches have the potential to provide ecologically sustainable solutions for managing coexistence (Treves & Naughton-Treves, 2005), but require a sound understanding of how primates acquire and transmit behavioural practices.

It is well-established that social networks in group-living primates influence the acquisition and transmission of a wide range of behavioural adaptations ranging from resource selection to tool use (Claidiere et al. 2013; Hobaiter et al. 2014; King et al. 2011; Price et al. 2017; Tan et al. 2018). There is also growing recognition that individual variation in personality traits such as boldness, anxiety, and exploratory tendency not only influence how animals adapt to urban environments (Sih et al., 2004), but further modulate social networks (McCowan et al. 2011) and how individuals generate or use information, whether asocial or socially (Carter et al., 2014; Hopper et al. 2014; Rawlings et al. 2017). These behavioural principles are thus germane to understanding the propagation of problematic behaviour within primate groups and are crucial for predicting group and individual level responses to behavioral interventions, and yet, have rarely been applied to examining and managing human-primate interfaces (but see Donald et al. 2012 and Blackwell et al. 2016 for applications in cetaceans and carnivores). In this project we aim to address these issues within the context of human-macaque conflict in Singapore, by examining how macaque social networks and individual-specific traits can be used to understand how ‘undesirable’ behaviour is acquired and maintained in social groups and to anticipate the outcomes of behavioral intervention strategies.

Managing human-macaque conflict has been an enduring challenge in urban Singapore. Singapore’s macaque population, estimated at approximately 2000 individuals across 92 groups, is concentrated along the edges of conserved forest fragments (Riley, Srikantan, & Gumert, 2015). In land-scarce and population-dense Singapore, these nature reserves are encircled by urban infrastructure and residential development with no buffer between macaque ranges and human settlement. Conflicts arise over macaques entering properties, raiding refuse, and snatching food. Such behaviour has been conditioned over a long history of human provisioning either via deliberate feeding, or failure by residents and park visitors to secure properties and refuse sites (Sha, Lee, Jones-Engle, & Fuentes, 2009). Historically, culling in response to complaints have resulted in up to a third of the population being exterminated in a single year (Feng, 2015). More recently however, volunteer-led organisations have initiated behavioral intervention strategies aimed at reconditioning macaque behaviour by training ‘Monkey Gaurds’ to deter macaques from entering residential premises, and call for accompanying research to examine and inform the efficacy of these measures.

The successful candidate will carry out field work in Singapore. They will work closely with supervisors and the Long-Tailed Macaque Working Group in Singapore (see End-User Collaboration Contributions) to identify and study groups of long-tailed macaques in problematic interface zones and to examine how macaque social networks influence patterns of anthropogenic resource use and problematic interactions with humans. Moreover, they will investigate how individual-specific traits modulate these patterns of macaque-human interactions, and how networks and individuals respond to behavioural intervention strategies.

Visit https://iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships/applying-social-network-and-personality-trait-analyses-to-understanding-and-managing-human-macaque-sympatry-in-urban-singapore-2/ for further information

Application Deadline: 3rd January 2025 at 12 midday.

If you are an international applicant (non-UK), you will need to contact the primary supervisor of your chosen project by no later than the 9^th December 2024, because only international applicants sponsored by a primary supervisor may apply to Iapetus.

It is essential to contact the prospective supervisor well before this date to develop a competitive proposal. Note that Durham University closes from 20 Dec to 2 January.

Funding Notes:

Applicants are in competition with other applicants in the IAPETUS DTP.

To address historical imbalances in the higher education sector, Iapetus is committed to recruiting a diverse, representative community of researchers in Environmental Science. We are guided by the UKRI policies on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and have developed our own Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policy to further this. The Widening Participation Scheme identifies Home applicants from underrepresented groups. The DTP aims to give up to 30% of interview places to those eligible for the Widening Participation Scheme but who would not have been shortlisted initially by the host organisation. Eligibility for the scheme, includes those from a UK minoritized ethnic group or those who lived in a Polar 1 quintile postcode when at secondary school.

To further the DTP’s aim to recruit from a diverse, representative community of researchers, Iapetus is pleased to introduce the Iapetus Diversifying Talent Scholarship Scheme, which runs separately but concurrently with the Studentship Competition. It is a separate scheme with different deadlines and processes. Consequently, if you are keen to apply for both opportunities, you will need to understand the different applicant obligations. For more information about the Scholarship Scheme, please see here.

• IAPETUS2 Studentship Funding Competition: https://iapetus2.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
• https://iapetus2.ac.uk/studentships/applying-social-network-and-personality-trait-analyses-to-understanding-and-managing-human-macaque-sympatry-in-urban-singapore-2/
• University Postgraduate application: https://studyatdurham.microsoftcrmportals.com/en-US/