ニホンザル加害群を対象とした計画的な個体群管理の有効性

抄録

Recent expansion of the distribution of wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) has caused serious human-macaque conflicts, including crop damage.

Capturing of the monkeys is a main countermeasure, but this does not always lead to the reduction of crop damage. It is important to not only reduce crop damage, but to also conserve endangered local monkey populations, The Japan Ministry of the Environment recently (2016) revised “The Guideline for Specific Wildlife Protection and Management Planning”, which was originally established in 2010. In the revised guidelines, the ministry recommend to conduct well-planned population management. In this paper, we introduce 20 case studies about population management based on the revised guidelines, in which either selective (capturing of specific individuals causing damage), partial (capture of part of target troop), or complete capture was performed, and evaluate the effects of these capturing methods on troop size and degree of crop damage reduction. The complete capture of a troop was performed through complicated procedures and considered the status of overall local population, which strongly reduced the level of harmfulness. The majority of the selective and partial capture of a troop also decreased the level of harmfulness.

Therefore, a well-planned population management can be useful. We recommend to use these three different methods in accordance with troop distribution of a given area, troop size, and the degree of harmfulness to be caused. Accumulating data on macaque population management is necessary to study the conditions for selecting the appropriate capturing method and for controlling population size. In addition, setting conservation standards of the local population is necessary.