Ecotourism and Indonesia's Primates

222 Pages·2022·8.782 MB·English

by  Sharon L. Gursky, Jatna Supriatna, Angela Achorn

Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects
Series Editor: Louise Barrett
Sharon L. Gursky
Jatna Supriatna
Angela Achorn   Editors
Ecotourism and
Indonesia's
Primates
Developments in Primatology Progress
and Prospects
Series Editor
Louise Barrett, Lethbridge, AB, Canada
This book series melds the facts of organic diversity with the continuity of the
evolutionary process. The volumes in this series will exemplify the diversity of
theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches currently employed by
primatologists and physical anthropologists. Specific coverage includes primate
behavior in natural habitats and captive settings; primate ecology and conservation;
functional morphology and developmental biology of primates; primate systematics;
genetic and phenotypic differences among living primates and paleoprimatology.
Sharon L. Gursky • Jatna Supriatna
Angela Achorn
Editors
Ecotourism and Indonesia’s
Primates
Editors
Sharon L. Gursky Jatna Supriatna
Department of Anthropology, MS 4352 Department of Biology
Texas A&M University Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences
College Station, TX, USA The University of Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia
Angela Achorn
Department of Comparative Medicine
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
Center, Keeling Center for Comparative
Medicine and Research
Bastrop, TX, USA
ISSN 1574-3489 ISSN 1574-3497 (electronic)
Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects
ISBN 978-3-031-14918-4 ISBN 978-3-031-14919-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14919-1
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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Preface
The irony of writing, or even just co-editing, a volume on wildlife tourism or any
aspect of tourism the past couple of years is not lost on us. At times, we wondered
if this volume should be better called “How COVID-19 killed the tourism industry.”
When we first envisioned this volume, it was early 2019. Wildlife tourism was
booming throughout Indonesia. But then the global pandemic hit. We all expected it
might clear up in a month or so - three months at most. How wrong we were. As a
result of COVID-19, the original formulation for this volume has drastically
changed. Initially there were 18 contributors, but now there are only 9. Many of the
contributors had planned to return to the field to collect data but, because of
COVID-19 travel restrictions, were unable to do so. Gursky has not been in the field
in nearly three years, whereas she rarely missed a field season since 1994. In addi-
tion to the inability to actually go to the field, many of the contributors withdrew
their contributions because they or their family members got sick, they had no
Internet at home, children and other family members in the home made it challeng-
ing to work, and a myriad of other challenges resulting from the pandemic.
COVID-19 has not only changed this volume but has changed the tourism indus-
try. One report shows that in in 2021, Bali had only 45 international tourists com-
pared to the millions that that visited annually prior to the pandemic. How
COVID-19 has affected our respective tourist sites is something that we are all
wondering. Gursky communicated with her field assistants through social media,
and they informed her that some of the tarsier tourist groups are no longer at their
sleeping site. Some of these sleeping sites have been used for decades. Why, or if,
the lack of tourists has caused the tarsiers to move to another sleeping site is a ques-
tion that will be addressed when we can all return to our respective field sites.
Perhaps the lack of tourists feeding the tarsiers crickets made them look elsewhere
or perhaps it’s just temporary? Time will tell. But the one thing that is certain is that
COVID-19 has affected the very animals that the ecotourism industry has been try-
ing to protect—just in very unexpected ways. With the lack of tourism, the local
communities are no longer receiving money from tourism that they can use for
subsistence. Instead, they may have been forced to rely on the forest and its prod-
ucts. Thus, COVID-19 may have caused additional declines in population densities
v
vi Preface
of many forest-dwelling organisms as well as decreases in the forest itself. Due to
the ability of organisms to transmit diseases between different types of organisms,
animals may be affected by COVID-19, especially animals related to cats and dogs
as well as many types of primates.
All of these questions weigh on our minds as tourism has become tremendously
reduced, and local communities are having a hard time surviving, especially with
the pace of inflation. Weighing the needs of the people with the needs of animals has
always been challenging. With COVID-19, it has become an even greater challenge
due to fewer resources and difficulty sharing resources.
College Station, TX, USA Sharon L. Gursky
Depok, Indonesia Jatna Supriatna
Bastrop, TX, USA Angela Achorn
Contents
1 Tourism and Indonesia’s Primates: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Angela Achorn, Sharon L. Gursky, and Jatna Supriatna
2 Similar Perceptions of National and International
Volunteer Ecotourists Contribute to the Conservation
of the Critically Endangered Javan Slow Loris
in Java, Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
K. A. I. Nekaris, Ariana V. Weldon, Michela Balestri,
and Marco Campera
3 Bukit Lawang and Beyond: Primates and Tourism
from a Provider’s Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Andrea Molyneaux
4 Rethinking Tolerance to Tourism: Behavioral Responses
by Wild Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra) to Tourists . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
D. A. Bertrand, C. M. Berman, M. Agil, U. Sutiah,
and A. Engelhardt
5 The Effect of Tourism on a Nocturnal Primate,
Tarsius Spectrum, in Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Sharon L. Gursky
6 Javan Gibbon Tourism: A Review from West
and Central Java Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Jatna Supriatna, Anton Ario, and Arif Setiawan
7 Encountering Sulawesi’s Endemic Primates: Considerations
for Developing Primate Tourism in South Sulawesi, Indonesia . . . . . 111
Katherine T. Hanson, Kristen S. Morrow, Putu Oka Ngakan,
Joshua S. Trinidad, Alison A. Zak, and Erin P. Riley
vii
viii Contents
8 Primates and Primatologists: Reflecting on Two Decades
of Primatological and Ethnoprimatological Research,
Tourism, and Conservation at the Ubud Monkey Forest . . . . . . . . . . 153
Michaela E. Howells, James E. Loudon, Fany Brotcorne,
Jeffrey V. Petterson, I. Nengah Wandia, I. G. A. Arta Putra,
and Agustín Fuentes
9 Primate Tourism on Java: 40 Years of Ebony Langur
Viewing in Pangandaran from Homestay Visits
to Mass Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Vincent Nijman
10 Indigenous Bird Ecotourism in Halmahera Island, Indonesia . . . . . . 199
M. Nasir Tamalene, Akhmad David Kurnia Putra,
Ericka Darmawan, Mustafa Mansur, and Bahtiar
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Chapter 1
Tourism and Indonesia’s Primates:
An Introduction
Angela Achorn, Sharon L. Gursky, and Jatna Supriatna
Abstract Indonesia is known for its remarkably diverse flora and fauna. One illus-
tration of Indonesia’s biodiversity is the impressive number of nonhuman primate
species it houses. Recent reports suggest there may be up to 61 primate species in
Indonesia, of which 38 are endemic (Perwitasari 2021). More conservative estimates
report 48 known species, though this still renders Indonesia the country with the third
largest number of primate species worldwide (Estrada et al. 2018). Furthermore,
though Brazil and Madagascar are believed to harbor more primate species overall
(102 and 100 species, respectively (Estrada et al. 2018)), Indonesia houses all major
primate groups, including prosimians, monkeys, lesser apes, and great apes.
This book is a multi-authored volume on primate tourism in Indonesia with the
goal of presenting the most up-to-date research on this topic. In this introduction
chapter, we clarify different terminology pertaining to tourism and provide an over-
view of the themes that will be explored throughout this volume – namely, the eco-
logical, economic, educational, and ethical aspects of primate tourism.
1.1 W hy Indonesia?
Indonesia is known for its remarkably diverse flora and fauna including high levels
of endemism. This megadiversity has resulted from complex biogeographic, geo-
logical, climatic, and ecological factors over the last 50 million years (Lohman
A. Achorn (*)
Department of Comparative Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research, Bastrop, TX, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
S. L. Gursky
Department of Anthropology, MS 4352, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
J. Supriatna
Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, The University of Indonesia,
Depok, Indonesia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 1
S. L. Gursky et al. (eds.), Ecotourism and Indonesia’s Primates, Developments
in Primatology: Progress and Prospects, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14919-1_1