Once I was writing the earlier article on the Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra) of the island of Bacan within the Moluccas, I got here throughout an anomaly within the data. A paper* mentions the early data of the presence of monkeys on Bacan by referring to a publication written in 1969 by Jack Fooden of the Area Museum in Chicago on the taxonomy and evolution of the monkeys of the Celebes (Sulawesi). There the earliest report of the monkeys on Bacan is attributed to the e-book by Quoy and Gaimard which was printed in Paris in 1830. Jean René Fixed Quoy (1790-1869) and Joseph Paul Gaimard (1793-1858) had been the surgeon/naturalists on the expedition of 1826-29 led by Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville (1790–1842) on board the French corvette, Astrolabe. Accounts of the expedition had been printed in a collection of volumes between 1830 and 1834.
I discovered the anomaly whereas trying on the authentic quantity by Quoy and Gaimard which is obtainable on-line. The male Crested Macaque they described was not proven as having been collected on the island of Bacan, then referred to as Batchian, however of Matchian, now Makian, a small volcanic island 90 km or 60 miles to the north of Bacan.
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| Makian, the island the place Quoy & Gaimard said they’d obtained their monkey Photographed from the south-east from the deck of the yacht—a transformed phinisi—Katharina 29 November 2022 |
That is what Quoy and Gaimard wrote:
Il habite quelques-unes des iles Moluques. Celui-ci provenait de Matchian. Son âge pouvait être de trois à quatre ans. Il était très-doux, clever, et jouait avec le premier venu….
[It inhabits some of the Moluccan Islands. This one was from Matchian. His age could be three to four years old. He was very gentle, intelligent, and played with the first comer…]
Errors and misunderstandings in labelling, writing and printing aren’t unusual as I do know to my embarrassment. This identification of Matchian as the positioning of assortment could possibly be interpreted in a number of methods:
- It’s correct and the monkey was from Matchian (Makian). I’ve discovered no different reviews of monkeys there however it’s an island dominated by its volcano, Kie Besi. Eruptions aren’t frequent however violent. Confirmed eruptions after 1830 in 1861, 1864, 1864, 1890 and 1988 have led to a lot destruction, many deaths, evacuations and migration from the island. Subsequently it’s doable that any monkeys that had been residing there in 1828 perished. In favour of this argument is that incontrovertible fact that each Quoy and Gaimard had been on board the ship when the animal was obtained. They should have identified and remembered the place it got here from, particularly for the reason that animal was alive. Certainly, the outline of its tameness suggests it had it been stored as a pet.
- ‘Matchian’ is a misprint for Batchian (Bacan). That should be the interpretation of the reference to the publication by Fooden (which I’ve not seen).
- The situation, ‘Matchian’ is totally mistaken and the monkey was collected on Sulawesi (Celebes)—additionally visited by the Astrolabe expedition. Since Quoy and Gaimard had been on board, it appears unlikely they might have made that mistake.
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| L’Astrolabe on an antarctic expedition in 1838 |
In questioning whether or not it is a dependable document for the incidence of the monkeys on Bacan, I’m additional puzzled by their absence, if Alfred Russel Wallace’s suggestion ‘that this species has been by accident launched by the roaming Malays, who usually carry about with them tame monkeys and different animals’, from different islands within the Moluccas. Studying one thing of the historical past of those spice islands for the reason that 1500s, there was a substantial amount of human motion between the islands of each side of Wallace’s line. Was it solely on Bacan that adequate had been launched for a inhabitants to turn out to be established?
I join assist however take the document of Quoy and Gaimard at face worth. There isn’t a cause to suppose that document from the Astrolabe Expedition for Matchian (Makian) in 1828 isn’t appropriate. The monkey might need been a pet purchased from the locals there. In that case this document has nothing no matter to do with the historical past of the macaques of Bacan.
Wallace’s account of his time on Bacan in 1858-59 seems to be the primary printed document of Crested Macaques on that island.
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| A view of BACAN from the east 28 November 2022 |
D’Urville JSCD. 1833. Voyage de la corvette L’Astrolabe exécuté par ordre du roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828 sous le commandement de J. Dumont D’Urville. Atlas Hydrographique. Paris: Tastu
Fooden J. 1969. Taxonomy and evolution of the monkeys of Celebes (Primates: Cercopithecidae). Bibliotheca Primatologica, No. 10. Basel: Karger.
*Hamada Y, Oi T, Watanabe T. 1994. Macaca nigra on Bacan Island, Indonesia: its morphology, distribution, and current habitat. Worldwide Journal of Primatology 15, 487-493.
Quoy, J. R. C, and Gaimard, J. P. (1830). Voyage de découvertes de l’Astrolabe, Zoologie, Vol 1, Paris: Tastu.