SINGAPORE — To resolve the ongoing human-macaque conflict here, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) has proposed a method to manage the monkeys without having to cull them.

Known as “behavioural modification”, ACRES said this programme would address the “root of the problem” and offer a “long-term” solution to it. “The concept of the behavioural modification is really getting the macaques to understand where their boundaries are. At this point, we humans have invaded their territory, so we (have to) now try to show them, by using us humans as obstacles, that they can’t cross beyond us,” said ACRES Chief Executive Louis Ng yesterday at the release of a rescued macaque back into the wild.

The organisation’s new macaque rescue team — which has only two full-time staff — is trained to conduct the behavioural modification programme. Last month, it responded to about 30 macaque-related calls through ACRES’ 24-hour Wildlife Rescue Hotline.

Between January and August this year, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) received about 1,460 instances of monkey-related feedback, a nearly 60-per-cent increase from last year’s figures. Noting that most of the feedback was from residents near the Central Catchment and Bukit Timah Nature Reserves, the AVA said over a hundred of those cases were related to “monkey aggression”.

Monkeys can become aggressive when in search of food and may snatch belongings, chase pedestrians, or injure children, the elderly or pets.

Opinions among residents towards the macaques in Lakeview Estate along Upper Thomson have been divided. “In a way, the management is stuck in a predicament because some residents insist that we release the monkeys when we catch them, (while) others want us to increase the number of catches we make,” said Mr Albert Har, Estate Manager of Lakeview Management.

When it comes to the culling of macaques, the AVA said humane euthanasia was its “last resort”, and added that the release of macaques into the forests would not resolve issues of monkey aggression, as those accustomed to human food would continue to venture out of the forests. “Indiscriminate release of aggressive/nuisance-causing wildlife back into the environment merely transfers the problem from one estate to the next,” said the AVA.

The authority said it has received ACRES’ proposal and will be studying its “feasibility and effectiveness”.

In July, a Sunday Times report said almost 360 macaques were killed by the AVA in the first half of this year — an estimated 20 per cent of the total macaque population in Singapore.