Recently, people have been found feeding wild macaques in the Tienhsiang area, causing the animals to snatch food and scratch tourists. The Taroko National Park Headquarters is promoting the four new “don'ts” for interacting with monkeys: Don't approach, don't provoke, don't feed, and don't leave food exposed to prevent human-monkey conflicts and to avoid changing the habits of macaques.

Feeding Formosan rock macaques (Macaca cyclopis) can negatively impact their social bonding behaviors, foraging abilities, activity patterns, and food habits in the long run. It can also increase the mortality rate of juvenile macaques, the aggressive behavior and stress response of males, which can lead to hair loss and have a negative impact on their health, lifespan, and reproductive rates.

Formosan rock macaques are becoming less wary of humans, to the extent of snatching things from visitors’ hands and even biting people, which results in human-monkey conflicts.

The Taroko National Park Headquarters asks the public not to feed the Formosan rock macaques. Any person found in violation of Article 13 of the National Park Law will be fined up to NT$3,000. The law will be strictly enforced, so please respect it.