Performing Monkeys in Bangladesh: Acquisition, Rearing, and Human Interactions | InformativeBD

Sharmin Akhtar, Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz, Lisa Jones-Engel, and Sajeda Begum, from the  different institute of the Bangladesh ans USA. wrote a Research Article about, Performing Monkeys in Bangladesh: Acquisition, Rearing, and Human Interactions. Entitled, Performing monkeys in Bangladesh: Monkey acquisition, rearing practices and human-monkey interactions. This research paper published by the Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences (JBES). an open access scholarly research journal on Biodiversity. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

The study on performing monkeys has been conducted at the largest monkey performer’s village at Kashipur of Jhenaidah district between August 2012 and June 2014. Field observations along with a pre-designed questionnaire survey were conducted among the 228 monkey performers with their families. This study revealed about 5000 performing monkeys which were trained to perform in road-side gatherings or street show to earn their livelihoods in this community. Rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) was the mostly used species (88%) followed by Pig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina) which is 9% and Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis) consists of 3%. Among six age-sex categories, adult male was used widely (54.15%) followed by adult female (22.93%) and sub-adult male (10.24%) for performance. Monkey performers catch monkey from the wild. The number of monkey individuals owned by each family varied from 1 to 6 with the mean 1.79 ± 1.02. During the harsh training procedure many monkeys (n=6) could not survive. Monkey performers and their family members have a frequent contact with the monkeys during handling, sharing food and training with monkey performance. As a result, monkey owners (42.5%) were bitten and the children (11.5%) were bitten as well while play with their monkeys. Most of the monkey performers (97.8%) did not take care of the wound even did not wash the wound after bitten which can increase the risk of bidirectional disease transmission. 

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Introduction

Five species of macaques are found in Bangladesh of which four species, Macaca leonina, Macaca fascicularis, Macaca arctoides, Macaca assamensis, are distributed only in the northeastern and southeastern hill areas. In contrast, Rhesus macaques are distributed throughout the country both in all types of forests and urban areas (Hasan et al., 2013). They are synanthropic, thriving in human-altered environments, including urban areas and play a significant role in the culture and traditions of some communities (Teas et al., 1980; Richard et al., 1989; Southwick et al., 2005). Monkey species those have been using to perform different acrobats in street show or other gatherings are known as performing monkey and groups of people who train the monkey and use them to perform in street show or any other gatherings to earn their livelihood, are known as monkey performers. Monkey performers are usually semi-nomad people; they collect monkeys from wild in different parts of the country and train them for acrobats.

Macaques, especially the Rhesus Macaque, and African Green Monkeys are widely used animal model, either wild-caught or purpose-bred (Kyes et al., 2006). Monkeys are prevalent in numerous books, television programs, and movies. Moreover, performing monkeys has a rich European history. There is long history to use monkeys by the travelers. Monkeys also used in circuses. Monkeys took the place in European arts (Boon, 1990). In America usually new world monkeys and apes are used for entertainments. These primates are used as a pet, showing different acrobats in different shows (Wolfe, 2003).

Although performing non-human primates (NHPs) are encountered throughout the world, Asian cultures have perhaps the longest and most vibrant tradition of using NHPs for entertainment. In Japan, a thousand-year history of training performance monkeys (Macaca fuscata) continues today through the Suo-Sarumawashi (Japanese Monkey Performance) (Sebeok, 1986; Hirasaki et al., 2004).

Not surprisingly then, in China, urban performing monkeys are a common site, drawing large crowds of onlookers (Lai, 1993). Monkeys also play a very important role in the Hindu culture. It is common to see monkey performing on the streets or near the beaches during certain Hindu festivals (Fuentes, 2006). Thailand has a deep tradition of training M. leonina as coconut picking monkeys, so it is not uncommon to see these extremely dexterous monkeys performing their tricks on the streets. Similar training schools can be found throughout South and Southeast Asia (Bertrand, 1967; Ratnambal, 2007). Masked Monkey or “Topeng Monyet” is a traditional play or performance in Indonesian villages involving performing monkeys with their handlers and usually finishing with a snake act or two (Schillaci et al., 2006).

In Bangladesh, monkey performers move one place to another place with carrying the performing monkeys on their back and use them to entertain the people especially, to show gymnastic perform. This intimate interaction of human with monkeys could transmit many zoonotic pathogens including Simian Foamy Virus (SFV) which is highly prevalent and can efficiently transmit through saliva among rhesus macaques (up to 100% of free ranging macaques are infected by age 3) (Jones-Engel et al., 2007). SFV replicates actively in the oral mucosae of infected monkeys, achieving high concentrations in saliva (Murray et al., 2006). Non-human Primates (NHP) to human transmission of SFV is thought to occur most commonly through bites. It was evident that the traveling of monkey performers with their monkeys and their frequent release of monkeys in nearby habitats played a vital role for the transmission of SFV among humans in Bangladesh (Feeroz et al., 2013). In this study, the population status of performing monkeys, their sources, health condition and the contexts of human–macaque contact were investigated which will ultimately help to understand the contribution of demographic variables to the likelihood of retroviral transmission among the people in this region. Considering this scenario, the study was focused to assess the performing monkey population, monkey acquisition, rearing practices and human-monkey interactions in Bangladesh.

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