Monkey Forest Ubud

Sacred Monkey Forest Ubud is owned by the village of Padangtegal. Village members serve on the Sacred Monkey Forest's governing council (The Padangtegal Wenara Wana Foundation). It has historically strives to develop and implement management objectives that will both maintain the sacred integrity of the monkey forest and promote the monkey forest as a sacred site that is open to visitors from around the world.





Padangtegal Wenara Wana Foundation also recognizes that tourism can have negative impacts on the monkey forest's natural and cultural resources. As a result, some of the primary objectives of the Padangtegal Wenara Wana Foundation include:

• Educating people about the importance of conserving the Sacred Monkey Forest's natural and cultural resources.
  
• Maintaining a team of highly trained staff members that are responsible for overseeing the daily operations of the Sacred Monkey Forest.
  
• Monitoring and whenever necessary restoring the integrity of the Sacred Monkey Forest's natural and cultural resources.

Monkeys within the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal are commonly called long-tailed macaques. Their scientific name is Macaca fascicuiaris. Macaques are found throughout Southeast Asia and many species of macaques live successfully in areas that are heavily utilized by humans. On Bali, there are Balinese long-tailed macaque troops (populations) that live in areas where they have little to no contact with humans and troops that come into contact with humans on a regular basis. However, despite the fact that many species of macaques thrive in areas that are heavily utilized by humans, there is evidence that the viability of Balinese long-tailed macaques (the ability of macaques to continue to thrive) may be dependent upon the conservation of Bali's forested areas.

Within long-tailed macaque societies, females are typically born into and remain with a single troop for life. In contrast, adult and sub-adult males may migrate between troops (young adult males typically leave their natal troop between the ages of 4 to 8 years). In order for a migrating adult or sub-adult male to be accepted into a new troop, migrating males must align themselves with a troops' females and be accepted by those females. Therefore, long-tailed macaque societies or troops are made up of 'matrilines' ('matri' is a root word that means 'mother').