Landscape Dynamics: Genetics and Parasitism in Balinese Long-tailed Macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

The impact of the landscape, especially a complex, anthropogenic landscape, on wildlife populations is substantial, influencing reproductive success and fitness, dispersal ability, pathogen exposure risk, resource availability, and ultimately, population success. On the island of Bali, humans shape their environment and the environment of populations of long-tailed macaques. Here, I examine how this long-term anthropogenic alteration to the landscape affects the population structure and pathogen transmission patterns of 15 populations of long-tailed macaques. First, the environment of Bali is analyzed and partitioned into 3 major components - the anthropogenic, the mixed environment, and the non-anthropogenic components. Using traditional parasitological techniques, I show that the anthropogenic landscape is significant in determining the pattern of pathogen success of both individual parasite species and the community of gut parasites. Next, genotyping and subsequent analysis of the landscape genetics across macaque populations reveals the anthropogenic landscape as a significant driver in shaping the population structure of macaques, serving as a force of both homogenization and fragmentation. Finally, in an effort to understand the effects of this anthropogenic landscape on dispersal patterns and pathogen transmission potentials, an agent-based model was developed and tested, with which it was determined that landscape complexity is significant in determining host dispersal and is a significant barrier to between-population transmission of highly virulent pathogens. While it is clear that the landscape is important to wildlife population connectivity, this research demonstrates the significance of humans, as a landscape component and developer, in shaping the ecology of the macaque.