Bing-shen year of Formosan monkey

Bing-shen year of Formosan macaques

In Chinese Zodiac, the year of the Monkey is in Feb. 8, 2016-Jan. 27, 2017. I designed Bing-shen year of Formosan macaques to celebrate the coming of a new year, and I hope to use this opportunity to draw attention for Formosan macaques in Taiwan.

Formosan macaques, Macaca cyclopis, have been inhabiting in Mountain Shou-shan in Taiwan for many years. In recent years, tourists or local residents involving in feeding macaques have been raising a controversial issue. The foraging behavior of these macaques have been changing, and the macaques have becoming dependent upon handouts increasingly. In addition, the intense monkey-human conflict have been occurred. Some of macaques snatched the food from tourists, and some even invaded into local houses. In response to these threat, the tourists or local residents around villages started to attack macaques. Some of macaques were found being poisoned and attacked by human as their body appeared with wounds. The conflict around villages were intense against the species and its protected status. Scientists reported that 200 of the species were missing. These were the worst environment for Formosan macaques habitation. Scientists started working on conservation measures to reduce the conflict, they tried to provide a less disturbed habitats for macaques. They suggested the best way to resolve the conflict is to stop feeding, disturbing and touching macaques, so that macaques can stop dependent on…