Macaca hecki

Habitat. Undisturbed or only lightly disturbed primary rainforest at elevations from close to sea level to 1600 - 1800 m. Seasons are not pronounced in these areas, with only one or two drier months each year and annual rainfall of 2500 - 3500 mm (higher in the mountainous regions). The extent to which Heck’s Macaque can thrive in degraded and secondary forest is not known.

Sumber: Cercopithecidae

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Heck’s Macaque is one of the least studied of the Sulawesi macaques. It lives in multimale — multifemale groups averaging 20 individuals (range 7 - 30) and probably in large home ranges of more than a 100 ha. As in all Sulawesi macaques (and typical for the genus), males disperse and females are philopatric. Densities are 20 - 50 ind / km?.

Sumber: Cercopithecidae

Status and Conservation. CITES Appendix II. Classified as Vulnerable on The IUCN Red List. Heck’s Macaque is fully protected by Indonesian Law. It is threatened mainly by loss of habitat, which is increasingly fragmented. The destruction of Sulawesi forests accelerated in the last 40 years, as it has for tropical forests worldwide; commercial logging, Indonesia’s transmigration program, the government-subsidized cash crop industry, and human population growth are all to blame. A report by C. Cannon and colleagues in 2007 reported that 80 % of Sulawesi forests had been destroyed. Heck’s Macaque is hunted in some areas and persecuted as a crop pest. The fearis that intensive hunting for commercial trade within the ranges of the Crested Macaque (M. nigra) and the Gorontalo Macaque, which has resulted in their severely reduced numbers and endangered status, will move south in the northern peninsula into the range of Heck’s Macaque. In 1994, it was estimated that the total population was c. 100,000, but it has certainly declined since then. Forest remains in inaccessible areas, but lowlands in the southern part of its distribution and coastal areas of the northern peninsula, in particular, have been largely converted to agriculture. The suitability of forests for Heck’s Macaques at higher elevations is unknown. In 1999, the lack of strictly protected areas in the range of Heck’s Macaque was seen as the biggest threat to its survival. Protection then was only afforded by a single nature reserve, Panua, of insufficient size (1500 ha), badly degraded and harboring low numbers of macaques. The Paguyaman River catchment was identified as of conservation value for Heck’s Macaque. Since 1999, Nantu Wildlife Reserve and a number of other reserves have been created that protect, or should protect, Heck’s Macaque: Dolangan, Mas Popaya Raja, Pangi Binanga, Pinjam / Tanjung Mantop, and Tangale reserves.