With five observation days and more than 10 hours observing monkeys completed, I can see definite patterns emerging.
The mangrove monkeys spend much of their days foraging and eating natural (non-provisioned) foods. I've watched them swim in shallow waters to collect mangrove snails and small crabs. I've seen monkeys grab grasshoppers and snack on them. I watched the troop members pick fruits and coconuts from trees.
In fact, they spend more quantitative time foraging than they do scavenging or begging for human food.
Most of my observations of conflict with humans centers on foods brought into the park by people. Typically, fishermen or families with children are the main players in the food begging\snatching\rummaging incidents.
As I log more days and hours in the field with the macaques, I hope to chart these patterns and derive some data that may be useful for lowering conflict incidents.
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