Primate Conservation

657 Pages·1977·13.872 MB·English

by  Prince Rainer III (Eds.)

Contributors
S. Κ. BEARDER COLIN P. GROVES
JOHN CASSIDY S. S. KALTER
DAVID J. CHIVERS LOIS K. LIPPOLD
ADELMAR F. COIMBRA-FILHO B. ANTHONY LUSCOMBE
JOHN M. DEAG HERNANDO DE MACEDO-RUIZ
WOLFGANG P. J. DITTOS KAREN MINKOWSKI
G. A. DOYLE RUSSELL A. MITTERMEIER
FRANK V. DUMOND J. F. OATES
R. I. M. DUNBAR JOHN R. OPPENHEIMER
ROY FONTAINE JEAN-JACQUES PETTER
ALAN G. GOODALL M. FAROOQ SIDDIQI
STEVEN GREEN CHARLES H. SOUTHWICK
Primate Conservation
Edited by
His Serene Highness
Prince Rainier III
of Monaco
Centre d'Acclimatation Zoologique
Monaco
Geoffrey H. Bourne
Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia
ACADEMIC PRESS New York San Francisco London 1977
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
COPYRIGHT © 1977, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
Ill Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10003
United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
24/28 Oval Road. London NW1
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main Entry under title:
Primate conservation.
Includes bibliographies and index.
CONTENTS: Petter, J.J. The aye aye.-
Doyle, G. A. and Bearder, S. K. The galagines of
South Africa.-Mittermeier, R. A. and Coimbra-
Filho, A. F. Conservation of the Brazilian lion
tamarins. [etc.]
1. Primates. 2. Wildlife conservation.
I. H.S.H. Prince Rainier III of Monaco Date
II. Bourne, Geoffrey Howard, Date
QL737.P9P6723 599'.8 76-42978
ISBN 0-12-576150-3
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
List of Contributors
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions
begin.
S. K. BEARDER (1), Primate Behavior Research Group, University of the Wit-
watersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
JOHN CASSIDY (95), Lagothrix Program, Bogota, Colombia
DAVID J. CHIVERS (539), Sub-Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, England
ADELMAR F. COIMBRA-FILHO (59, 117), Department of Environmental Con-
servation, FEEMA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
JOHN M. DEAG (267), Department of Zoology, University of Edinburgh, Edin-
burgh, Scotland, and Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, Bris-
tol, England
WOLFGANG P. J. DITTUS (237), Office of Zoological Research, National Zoologi-
cal Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
G. A. DOYLE (1), Primate Behavior Research Group, University of the Witwaters-
rand, Johannesburg, South Africa
FRANK V. DUMOND (167), Monkey Jungle, Inc., Goulds, Florida
R. I. M. DUNBAR (363), Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol,
England
ROY FONTAINE* (167), Department of Psychology, Bucknell University, Lewis-
burg, Pennsylvania
ALAN G. GOODALL (599), Biology Department, Paisley College of Technology,
Paisley, Strathclyde, Scotland
STEVEN GREEN (289), Field Research Center for Ecology and Ethology, The
Rockefeller University, Millbrook, New York
COLIN P. GROVES (599), Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, School of
General Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
* Present address: Field Research Center for Ecology and Ethology, The Rockefeller
University, Millbrook, New York.
xiii
xiv List of Contributors
S. S. KALTER (385), Southwest Foundation for Research and Education, San
Antonio, Texas
LOIS K. LIPPOLD (513), Department of Anthropology, San Diego State Univer-
sity, San Diego, California
B. ANTHONY LUSCOMBE (95), Miraflores, Lima, Peru
HERNANDO DE ΜACEDO-RUIZ (95), Museo de Historia Natural "Javier Prado,"
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru
KAREN MINKOWSKI (289), Field Research Center, The Rockefeller University,
Millbrook, New York
RUSSELL A. MITTERMEIER (59, 95, 1 17), Department of Anthropology and
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts
J. F. OATES* (419), New York Zoological Society, New York, New York
JOHN R. OPPENHEIMER (469), International Center for Medical Research and
Department of Pathobiology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Maryland
JEAN-JACQUES PETTER (37), Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Equipe de
Recherche sur les Prosimiens, Laboratoire d'Ecologie Generate, Brunoy,
France
M. FAROOQ SIDDIQI (339), Department of Geography, Aligarh Muslim Univer-
sity, India
CHARLES H. SOUTHWICK (339), Department of Pathobiology, The Johns Hop-
kins University, Baltimore, Maryland
* Present address: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Canal Zone.
Preface
From 1950 to 1970, "medical research" consumed large numbers of
nonhuman primates. The term "medical research" included, however,
monkeys that were used for vaccine development and testing; at the time
polio vaccine was being developed very large numbers of monkeys were
used. The pet trade has also exerted a sizable drain on the monkey popula-
tion over the years; the requirements of zoos have been modest by
comparison. The number actually used in research, pet trade, etc., is
misleading in the sense that it does not include the losses that occur
during the capturing, holding, and transport periods. These losses may be
as high as 85%; for example, if 35,000 live monkeys arrive in the United
States from Iquitos in Peru, it means that about 180,000 monkeys were
originally taken from their native environment to permit the 35,000 to
arrive live in the United States. This loss has been so great over the years
that in many areas in South America it is difficult to find monkeys near
rivers and highways, and each year hunters and trappers have to go
deeper into the forest to find an adequate supply for their purposes.
Another significant loss of nonhuman primates in the wild is due to
their consumption as food. An official of the flora and fauna section of the
Agricultural Ministry of Peru has estimated that 7.5 million monkeys
were eaten from 1964 to 1974 in Peru compared with 1.5 million killed or
captured for export. We know that monkeys and apes are also used for
food by the indigenous population in many parts of Africa. The forest
people of the African Coastal rain forest prefer monkeys as food to any
other game. The increase in population in these areas with their growing
demands for protein makes the future of primates in many areas uncer-
tain, apart from their use in the Western world for medical research and
for other purposes.
How serious is the situation among nonhuman primates? It varies for
xv
xvi Preface
different species. Among the apes the condition of wild orang stocks rang
the alarm through the efforts of Dr. Barbara Harrisson some years ago. In
the early 1960's she estimated that only 3000-5000 orangs were left
alive in the wild. This was undoubtedly an understatement, but it led to the
establishment of many conservation measures which greatly reduced the
drain on the wild population of this species. H. D. Rijksen, working in
Sumatra, recently estimated that there are 15,000 orangs left in Sumatra,
and since there are probably about 5000 left in Borneo an estimate of
20,000 for the world population of orangs is a reasonable one. However,
Dr. Rijksen pointed out that the habitat for half the Sumatran orangs was
in the process of being eliminated. The orang reservation at Sabah in
North Borneo will remain intact so long as the Government continues to
resist the pressures of lumber companies that would like that choice piece
of tropical forest located only 15 miles from a timber port. The tropical
rain forests throughout the world are, in fact, being destroyed at a rate
without precedent in human history. According to Thomas Lovejoy
(1976), Program Director of the World Wildlife Fund (United States),
two-thirds of southeast Asian rain forests and half the African rain forests
have already been eliminated, and even in virgin forests of the Amazon,
of which one-third was covered almost completely by forest, only 17% of
the area is now forested.
The eastern gorilla is suffering from the intense pressures for land
which accompany population growth; the western gorilla and the chim-
panzee are subjected to similar pressures as are many species of
monkeys. Most of us have thought of the rhesus monkey as being abun-
dant, and they have certainly been used in a prodigal fashion as if they
were. A million rhesus monkeys were trapped and removed from India in
the last twenty years. In the late 1950's, 100,000 rhesus monkeys were
exported a year; by the mid-1960's this had dropped to 50,000 per year,
and during the 1970's the number was reduced to between 30,000 and
40,000 a year. Now the number available has been drastically reduced by
the restrictions imposed by the Indian Government. In this volume
Southwick and Siddiqi indicate that unless there is greater protection of
rhesus monkeys by local people "they will be eliminated from most of the
agricultural areas of India within the next 25 years/' At least the rhesus
monkey is protected from being eaten by the Indian population because
of the Hindu religion; had they not been protected in this way there
would almost certainly not have been any left today.
Most conservationists advocate the establishment of primate reser-
vations. This suggestion is well meaning, but is not entirely practicable
since it is impossible to prevent the indigenous populations from hunting
and killing the primates on the reservation for their own purposes. The
Preface xvii
establishment of a reservation should not be the only method of conser-
vation. No country can afford the money and manpower for the policing
necessary to protect these areas. There has to be a multipronged approach
to conservation. Endangered animals can be brought into areas in which
they can be more easily supervised, and this need not necessarily be in
their country of origin. A good example is the proliferation of vervet
monkeys in the Virgin Islands and the successful transplantation of
rhesus monkeys to Cayo Santiago. In some cases it may be easier to
preserve a species in a part of the world not normally inhabited by
them. It may even be necessary to preserve some endangered species in
zoos or laboratories where they can be given top veterinary care. A good
example of this is the Yerkes Center's colony of orangutans. Thirty-five
orangs already living in the United States were bought in the early
1960's, most of them around 1962. They were all young animals at that
time. They have now grown to maturity, and with skilled veterinary care
and excellent nutrition have produced thirty-five live offspring. This
colony provides a unique opportunity for the scientific study of the orang
which is unequaled in the world, and which will never again be possible
to duplicate. The Yerkes Center has bred 299 chimpanzees, orangutans,
and gorillas since 1930, an average of nearly 7 apes a year for 46 years.
There is no doubt that the ideal method of conservation is to establish a
wild reservation in the country of origin of the animals. The reality is,
however, that these reservations are unlikely to continue indefinitely in
the face of increasing world population and hunger, especially in the
developing countries in which the world's nonhuman primates are lo-
cated. As an alternative, controlled breeding groups of animals in natural
surroundings, such as the Government of Zaire is planning to do with its
pygmy chimpanzees, has much in its favor.
Since there is a good chance that despite all our attempts the preserva-
tion of endangered species of primates by the establishment of reser-
vations in the wild will be unsuccessful, a few high quality zoos through-
out the world could be selected to receive and breed endangered species.
The Yerkes Center could participate in this program and could at the same
time make a scientific study of these animals. The demand on wild popu-
lations of nonhuman primates for pets has now been eliminated in the
United States, and hopefully other countries will follow suit. For vaccine
production and medical research the answer is to set up enough breeding
stations by the user countries to meet their requirements and eventually
to eliminate completely their demands on the wild animals.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature is attempting
to establish a set of guidelines on the use of nonhuman primates in
medical research. The list drawn up by the Specialist Group, I.U.C.N., and
xviii Preface
the International Primatological Society is an excellent document, and
should be supported both by the conservationist and the medical scien-
tist.
The problems of conservation of many species of nonhuman primates
are discussed in this book by distinguished scientists who are experts in
their knowledge of the animals they write about and who have firsthand
knowledge of the problems of conserving them. We cannot deal in one
book with all the endangered nonhuman primates, but we have selected
animals ranging from Galago to the Gorilla to serve as examples of the
types of problems that the conservationist faces.
All authors of this book agreed that the royalties earned should be used
to further primate conservation.
His Serene Highness
Prince Rainier III of Monaco
Geoffrey H. Bourne
1
The Galagines of South Africa
G. A. DOYLE and S. K. BEARDER
I. Introduction 2
II. Distribution 2
A. Galago crassicaudatus 3
B. Galago senegalensis 3
III. Description 4
A. Galago crassicaudatus 4
B. Galago senegalensis moholi 5
IV. Habitat 5
A. Galago crassicaudatus 5
B. Galago senegalensis 6
V. Population Densities 7
VI. Activity Patterns 8
A. Galago crassicaudatus 9
B. Galago senegalensis 10
VII. Sleeping and Nests 11
A. Galago senegalensis 11
B. Galago crassicaudatus 12
VIII. Locomotion 13
A. Galago senegalensis 13
B. Galago crassicaudatus 14
IX. Feeding 16
A. Galago senegalensis 16
B. Galago crassicaudatus 17
X. Group Structure 19
A. Galago senegalensis 19
B. Galago crassicaudatus 20
XL Home Range 20
A. Galago senegalensis 21
B. Galago crassicaudatus 21
1