Primate Ecology And Conservation

This practical volume brings together a group of distinguished primate researchers to synthesise field, laboratory, and conservation management techniques for primate ecology and conservation.

The number of primates on the brink of extinction continues to grow, and the need to respond with effective conservation measures has never been greater. This book provides a comprehensive and state-of-the-art synthesis of research principles and applied management practices for primate conservation. It begins with a consideration of the biological, intellectual, economic, and ecological importance of primates and a summary of the threats that they face, before going on to consider these threats in more detail with chapters on habitat change, trade, hunting, infectious diseases, and climate change. Potential solutions in the form of management practice are examined in detail, including chapters on conservation genetics, protected areas, and translocation. An Introduction to Primate Conservation brings together an international team of specialists with wide-ranging expertise across primate taxa. This is an essential textbook for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and established researchers in the fields of primate ecology and conservation biology. It will also be a valuable reference for conservation practitioners, land managers, and professional primatologists worldwide.

The survival of primates in their natural habitats is of growing concern to primatologists, ecologists and conservationists. In this volume, research on feeding behaviour, nutrition and digestive physiology from captive and wild primates is presented. Correlates of the habitat and social organisation are discussed, and then integrated with the pressing problem of how to conserve primates. Broad issues of confrontation between human and non-human primate populations are considered in the light of conflicting priorities for land-use and development. The increased knowledge of what primates require for their survival is applied to problems of captive propagation as a means of reducing dependence on exploiting wild populations. The papers presented in this volume will stimulate discussion between ecologists, conservationists and those concerned with land-use management to establish realistic policies for primate conservation.

This volume was created initially from a symposium of the same name presented at the International Primatological Society's XVIII Congress in Adelaide. South Australia. 6-12 January 2000. Many of the authors who have contributed to this text could not attend the symposium. so this has become another vehicle for the rapidly growing discipline of Fragmentation Science among primatologists. Fragmentation has quickly become a field separate from general ecology. which underscores the severity of the situation since we as a planet are rapidly losing habitat of all types to human disturbance. Getting ecologists. particularly primatologists. to admit that they study in fragments is not easy. In the field of primatology. one studies many things. but rarely do those things (genetics. behavior. population dynamics) get called out as studies in fragmentation. For some reason "fragmentation primatologists" fear that our work is somehow "not as good" as those who study in continuous habitat. We worry that perhaps our subjects are not demonstrating as robust behaviors as they "should" given fragmented or disturbed habitat conditions. I had a colleague openly state that she did not work in fragmented forests. that she merely studied behavior when it was clear that her study sites. everyone of them. was isolated habitat. Our desire to be just another link in the data chain for wild primates is so strong that it makes us deny what kinds of habitats we are working in. However.

This will be the first time a volume will be compiled focusing on South American monkeys as models to address and test critical issues in the study of nonhuman primates. In addition, the volume will serve an important compliment to the book on Mesoamerican primates recently published in the series under the DIPR book series. The book will be of interest to a broad range of scientists in various disciplines, ranging from primatology, to animal behavior, animal ecology, conservation biology, veterinary science, animal husbandry, anthropology, and natural resource management. Moreover, although the volume will highlight South American primates, chapters will not simply review particular taxa or topics. Rather the focus of each chapter is to examine the nature and range of primate responses to changes in their ecological and social environments, and to use data on South American monkeys to address critical theoretical questions in the study of primate behavior, ecology, and conservation. Thus, we anticipate that the volume will be widely read by a broad range of students and researchers interested in prosimians, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes, humans, as well as animal behavior and tropical biology.

The list of challenges facing nonhuman primates in the 21st century is a long one. The expansion of palm oil plantations to feed a growing consumer class is eating away at ape and monkey habitats in Southeast Asia and Central Africa. Lemurs are hunted for food in the poorest parts of Madagascar while monkeys are used as medicine in Brazil. Traditional cultural beliefs are maintaining demand for animal body parts in West African markets while viral YouTube videos of “cute” and “cuddly” lorises have increased their market value as pets and endangered their populations. These and other issues are addressed in this book by leading researchers in the field of ethnoprimatology, the study of human/nonhuman primate interactions that combines traditional primatological methodologies with cultural anthropology in an effort to better understand the nuances of our economic, ritualistic, and ecologic relationships.

A ground breaking study of primates that live in flooded habitats around the world.

Primate Behavioral Ecology, described as “an engaging, cutting-edge exposition,” incorporates exciting new discoveries and the most up-to-date approaches in its introduction to the field and its applications of behavioral ecology to primate conservation. This unique, comprehensive, single-authored text integrates the basics of evolutionary, ecological, and demographic perspectives with contemporary noninvasive molecular and hormonal techniques to understand how different primates behave and the significance of these insights for primate conservation. Examples are drawn from the “classic” primate field studies and more recent studies on previously neglected species from across the primate order, illustrating the vast behavioral variation that we now know exists and the gaps in our knowledge that future studies will fill.