by : Choiriatun Nur Annisa
November 2010
was the latest big eruption of one of the most active volcano mountains in the
world, Gunung Merapi. As the last remaining forest in Yogyakarta, it
compromises the habitat for many species including primates. Tlogo Muncar and
Tlogo Nirmolo are known as two important habitat of the long-tailed macaque.
The Tologo Muncar was affected by eruption, whereas Tlogo Nirmolo was
not. Were they able to survive from the eruption? How’s their life after the
devastation? Did they come back to their original habitat?
In February
2011, the author conducted a field work to investigate the population size
after eruption. Concentration counts was applied to counts number of
individuals, due to very steep topography in the study area. The number of
individuals in Tlogo Muncar was higher than before which should be lower
than previous number. Suprisingly, the Tlogo Muncar population even was far
higher than Tlogo Nirmolo Population .
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| vegetation conditions after eruption in Tlogo Muncar |
To investigate further explanation why Tlogo Muncar
population is higher than Tlogo Nirmolo population, Annisa collected vegetation
data using point centered quarter method, collecting evidence of other habitat
factors such as water and covers. Five out of 13 feeding species were still
found in Tlogo Muncar and either the most frequent also most dominant species
were eaten by the macaque. It seems that food is not the limitation factors for
the population because this population experienced food supplementation from
tourist. Water and covers were also still supporting this population. Although
Tlogo Muncar and Tlogo Nirmolo
are neighbouring areas, the vegetation in both locations were not close
similar, based on the assessment using Sorensen similarity index. Even, the most
dominant species and frequent species in both location were different.
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| Long-tailed macaque population in Tlogo Nirmolo |
Furthermore,
Annisa tried to compare population structure. She found that the group size in
Tlogo Nirmolo was female deficit. It indicated a high competition between male
to get female, and low birth rate. The less number of infant and juvenil in Tlogo
Nirmolo was also the evidence. In Tlogo Muncar, the female
was still higher than the male. Therefore, the competition would not be as high
as in Tlogo Nirmolo. The indication was also from the number of infant and
juvenile that was still high (40,8%) in Tlogo Muncar. Another explanation is
the ability of long tailed macaque to disperse and avoid effect of eruption. When, the eruption attacked, they might be migrate to somewhere safe as
being reported by the official, then came back as soon as it sprouted. From the
observation, it seemed that sprouting was not taking long time. Survey on 12
January 2011 in Tlogo Muncar found that some ‘dead’ trees had sprouted. In addition, only one individual was reported
death from the eruption. Indicating, that the population of long tailed macaque
in Tlogo Muncar was able to survive from the eruption.
contact: cn.annisa@yahoo.co.id
contact: cn.annisa@yahoo.co.id
