You really don't want to mess with the Pig-tailed Macaques at Sepilok, especially because they have lost some of their fear of humans. I did have a close encounter with them that was rather two close for comfort, here is the relevant excerpt from my blog:
After about 11:30 I decided it was pointless in the heat and I should turn back. I did have one scare walking on the way back down the trail though as I passed a group of Pig-tailed Macaques going the other way. There were three massive males with a large group of females and young and they really didn’t like me there. They started by just displaying their teeth and doing the threatening macaque bending down as well as eventually mock-charging and almost going for me. I just held my ground and walked slowly on the other side of the trail, trying to keep as far away from the females and young as possible, but it wasn’t a very wide trail and it did get very hairy as I was going past. Even once I was past the group, the males followed me down the path, mock-charging along the way, until I was well away from the group. I’m not sure what the right response is for macaques. For dogs you bend down to pretend to pick up a rock but I don’t think that would have been good for macaques. Do you make yourself look as big as possible? I imagine running would have been the wrong thing to do in this situation, it rarely is right with animals.
