PrimaTourism: Preliminary Study on Activity Budget of Dusky leaf monkey Trachypithecus obscurus obscurus in Bukit Soga Perdana, Batu Pahat, Johor

Abstract

Dusky leaf monkey, Trachypithecus obscurus distributed throughout Peninsular Malaysia are currently under threats by agricultural land conversion, habitat fragmentation, pet trade and other anthropogenic development. Bukit Soga Perdana, Batu Pahat, Johor is an island forest surrounded by urban development and the populations are highly fragmented here. PrimaTourism is an alternative way to conserve primate species through the means of wildlife tourism. Thus, the aim for this study is to obtain the daily activity budget of T. obscurus in Bukit Soga Perdana to serve as foundation for PrimaTourism activities. Scan sampling method was employed in this study from November 2017 to February 2018 and a total of nine category of behaviours were recorded. Results indicated that T. obscurus spent most of the time moving, followed by feeding, resting, vocalization, agonistic and allomothering. These behaviours are largely influenced the surroundings such as presence or absence of humans. This study provide the first report on daily activity budget of dusky leaf monkey in Bukit Soga Perdana, not only to understand the behaviour of the species, but also as foundation to initiate PrimaTourism in the area.