RANGING BEHAVIOR OF Macaca fascicularis AT THE ENTRANCE OF KUALA SELANGOR NATURE PARK 129 Malays. Appl. Biol. (2014) 43(2): 129–142 * To whom correspondence should be addressed. RANGING BEHAVIOR OF LONG-TAILED MACAQUES (Macaca fascicularis) AT THE ENTRANCE OF KUALA SELANGOR NATURE PARK KAMARUL, H. 1,2 , AHMAD, I. 1* , BADRUL-MUNIR, M.Z. 3 , SYAIZWAN, Z. 1 and AAINAA, A. 4,2 1 Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus, Locked Bag No. 100, 17600 Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia. 3 School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 4 Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. * E-mail: aismail@science.upm.edu.my ABSTRACT This study reported the ranging behavior of a group of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) that inhabit the area near Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Selangor, Malaysia. The data on the ranging behavior were collected daily through scan sampling from February to December 2011 on all significant individuals in the focus group. Observations were focusing on the moving distance and usage of canopy level by the study group in the exploiting habitat. They often travelled in the range between 100 and 600 m per day, and the ranging patterns were influenced by the food distribution, sleeping site, predation and territorial factors. The study group seems to use areas that are close to human settlements because of the availability and high distribution of food. The study group does not seem to move far from their home range because they will be returning to the trees along the roadside to sleep. Avoiding predators and territorial factor are the main reasons why they are using the same sleeping sites. The most frequent forest canopy strata used by the study group are the ground level (36.78%), followed by the lower canopy (35.46%), middle canopy (17.93%), upper canopy (7.74%), and the lowest is emergent (2%). Overall, ranging behavior of the study group is not only influenced by food distribution but also by other factors such as avoiding predators and territorial possession at the studied area. Key words: Long-tailed macaque, Macaca fascicularis, ranging behavior, Kuala Selangor Nature Park, Peninsular Malaysia INTRODUCTION The issues of habitat loss due to logging, development activities and forest conversion for agriculture along with the presence of anthropogenic food resources has created a situation which has affected the behavior and ecology of the monkeys. One of the central pursuits in behavioral ecology is ranging behavior where it is shown in the manner of individuals and groups struggle to obtain, utilize, and defend their home ranges (Börger et al., 2006). The ways primates respond towards their environments varies widely. In order to measure ranging behavior, this research has been focusing on two measures: the annual home range and daily path length. Home range refers to areas that are most frequently used (Burt, 1943), measured using a variety of techniques and it can be interpreted conceptually or operationally (Powell, 2000). Concept model of an animal home range focuses on familiarity and usage. Operating model may accurately reflect an individual’s cognitive map, which includes all areas an animal has travelled and can be an important consideration for conservation managers. However, both of these models reflect the demographic and ecological conditions which are important for a better understanding of how animals adapt to the environment (Börger et al., 2006) and may help explain the development of cognitive map (Peters, 1978). In addition, an understanding of how