Monkeys with disabilities: prevalence and severity of congenital limb malformations in Macaca fuscata on Awaji Island

Abstract

The Awajishima Monkey Center (AMC) free-ranging, provisioned population of Japanese macaques has included individuals with congenital limb malformations (CLMs) for at least 40 years. Including new data from this study, 16.1% of AMC infants from 1969 to 2007 (185 of 1,150) were born with CLMs. However, relatively little is known about the demographics of CLMs in the population, particularly the relationships among occurrence and severity of CLMs and age-sex demographics after infancy. In 2004, we conducted a census at AMC. Of the 199 monkeys censused, 34 individuals (17.1%) had CLMs. To estimate the severity of CLMs, we created an index that ranks individuals on a scale of 0 to 1 based on affected and absent limbs and digits. The severity of CLMs varied greatly (index range = 0.01-0.79, mean = 0.29), with similar variation in severity in each age-sex class (Student t-test, P > 0.05).

Disability, Compensatory Behavior, and Innovation in Free‐Ranging Adult Female Japanese Macaques (Macaca Fuscata)

“…In a census in 2004, we identified 34 individuals with some level of CLM, of whom 13 were adult females [Turner et al, 2008]. There were about 200 M. fuscata living primarily in one large multimale, multifemale social group in the forest surrounding the AMC, with some peripheral allmale groups in the area as well.…”

“…Rates of congenital limb malformations (CLMs) in the population of free-ranging Macaca fuscata at the Awajishima Monkey Center (AMC) on Awaji Island, Japan, have been unusually high since the 1960s [Homma, 1980;Nakamichi et al, 1997;Turner et al, 2008;Yoshihiro et al, 1979]. In a 2004 census of the provisioned population, 17.1% of the monkeys had CLMs, and from 1969 to 2007 at least 185 individuals with CLMs were born, with an average of 16.1% of infants born with CLMs in any given year [Turner et al, 2008].…”

“…While informative, the Drosophila model does not account for social interactions or individual behavioral flexibility and innovations that may compensate for or exacerbate the effects of disability (S.E. There are also examples of nonhuman primate individuals who have survived with long-term disabilities in the form of antemortem tooth loss, injury-induced manual disability, and CLMs [Berkson, 2004;Chapman and Chapman, 1987;Cuozzo and Sauther, 2004;Fedigan and Fedigan, 1977;Nakamichi et al, 1983a;Nakamichi et al, 1983b;Nakamichi et al, 1997;Turner et al, 2005;Turner et al, 2008]. The WHO defines disability, in part, as a "complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person's body and features of the society in which he or she lives" (WHO, 2001, http://www.who.int/topics/disabilities/en/).…”

Birth in Free-ranging Macaca fuscata

“…10 mo of the year. The monkeys are systematically provisioned twice daily, and they are also fed peanuts by tourists from within a caged enclosure (Nakamichi et al 1997;Turner et al 2008). The captive Japanese macaque birth occurred at the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, Japan.…”

Survival of a wild ring-tailed lemur (<i>Lemur catta</i>) with abdominal trauma in an anthropogenically disturbed habitat

“…Since much of the primate literature on injury and illness pertains to anthropoids, most described injuries are from great apes and monkeys, rather than strepsirrhines. Among anthropoids, living within social groups and help from conspecifics are cited as reasons why individuals with injuries or congenital abnormalities fare well (Chapman et al 1987, Turner et al 2008, Struhsaker et al 2011. Reports of injuries to strepsirrhines are generally cases of attacks on infants where individuals typically die within a short period of time (e.g., infanticide) (Erhart andOverdorff 1998, Jolly et al 2000).…”