Until recently, the Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis), an arboreal primate endemic to the southern Ethiopian highlands, remained virtually unstudied, and its distribution pattern inadequately documented. To broaden our knowledge of the species' distribution and abundance, we carried out interviews with local people and total count surveys for Bale monkeys across 67 fragmented forest sites in human-dominated landscapes in the Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Regions, Ethiopia. From January 2010 to May 2011, we discovered 26 new Bale monkey populations inhabiting forest fragments at elevations ranging from 2,355 to 3,204 m asl. Across these populations, we recorded 37 groups ranging in size from 9 to 29 individuals (Mean = 19.5, SD = 4.5), for a total of 722 individuals. Black-and-white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza) were sympatric with Bale monkeys at all sites, while grivet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) were found only at sites where Bale monkeys did not occur. All of the newly discovered Bale monkey sites once contained bamboo forest, though at 35% of the sites bamboo forest had been eliminated during the past two decades. The persistence of Bale monkeys at fragmented sites lacking bamboo suggests greater habitat flexibility for the species than previously thought, though the long-term viability of populations both with and without bamboo remains uncertain. Human hunting in response to crop raiding, a behavior the monkeys engaged in at all sites, represents a major threat facing the newly discovered Bale monkey populations. Furthermore, despite their current lack of sympatry, apparently hybrid individuals between Bale monkeys and grivets were noted at three sites, posing yet another potential obstacle to Bale monkey conservation. Community conservation programs aimed at (1) protecting remaining habitat fragments, (2) planting bamboo and trees within and between fragments, and (3) reducing crop raiding represent the only hope for survival of the newly discovered Bale monkey populations.
We report here a karyotypic study of 6 individuals of Hylobates concolor leucogenys, 2 H. concolor siki, 3 H. concolor gabriellae, 1 hybrid H. concolor leucogenys Χ H. concolor siki, 3 hybrid H. concolor gabriellae Χ H. concolor siki and 2 hybrid H. concolor hainanus Χ H. concolor leucogenys. Difficulties raised by the mophological identification of subspecies are discussed, and a new morphological characteristic for recognising female H. concolor gabriellae is described. Each of the 4 subspecies appears to be distinguishable on the basis of its karyotype: H. concolor leucogenys differs from H. concolor siki by a reciprocal translocation, from H. concolor hainanus by a pericentric inversion and from H. concolor gabriellae by the presence of both of these two rearrangements. However, these data do not allow us to identify a phylogenetic relationship between the subspecies because, with respect to the karyotypes, none occupies an ancestral position in comparison with the others.
A breeding programme for Yellow‐breasted capuchin Cebus xanthosternos was initiated at the Rio de Janeiro Primate Centre [Centro de Primatologia do Rio de Janeiro (CPRJ)], Brazil, in 1980 when this monkey was considered highly threatened. In 1987, a field survey concluded that an urgent measure that should be taken to save the species was the expansion of the breeding programme at the CPRJ and the extension of the programme to other collections with expertise in breeding New World primates. Mulhouse Zoo, France, proposed that CPRJ should expand the breeding programme to Europe and that the participating zoos should be asked to fund in situ conservation. The breeding programme began in Europe in 1990 at Mulhouse Zoo. At the end of 2010, there were 140 Yellow‐breasted capuchins at 21 European zoos. Since 2002, in situ conservation actions have provided important information about wild populations. The largest forest fragments, scattered across c. 470 000 km2 over Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Caatinga, were visited, and wild groups were monitored in three of them. The findings from these studies help us to understand the basic ecology of this primate and to build a conservation action plan for the future.
The red-bellied guenon (Cercopithecus e. erythrogaster) is an endangered subspecies of primate endemic to the Dahomey Gap. To better understand its distribution pattern, interviews with local people in 180 localities in south Benin and southeast Togo and ground surveys were conducted from 2000 to 2007. The species was found inhabiting eight localities in swamp forests, gallery forests and seasonally-flooded semideciduous forests. Two of these are protected areas: the Lama Forest of Benin and the Togodo Reserve of Togo. Appropriate conservation actions are necessary for the red-bellied guenon, including improved law enforcement and regular monitoring.
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