Programme review by the Great Primate Handshake

Last night’s programme was both informative and hard hitting. Its prime time slot (just after a popular Eastenders episode) ensured an audience, and its focus on consumer products made it both relevant and eye opening. You can watch the programme “Dying for biscuit” again on BBC iplayer for the next 7 days.

The Great Primate Handshake supports and raises awareness of primate sancutaries and conservation organisations. Learn more about the theat of pail oil development at the Orangutan Land Trust’s website, produced by the Handshake by our volunteers.

In the UK we consume huge amounts of palm oil, an ingredient found in scores of products including biscuits, fish fingers, cosmetics and toiletries.

In Panorama’s Dying For a Biscuit, reporter Raphael Rowe journeys into the rainforest of Borneo, where he uncovers evidence of palm oil companies cutting down trees illegally and developing plantations on protected land.

This deforestation releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the global environment. As the forest disappears, at a rate of two football pitches every minute, so too does the habitat of man’s closest cousins, the critically endangered orangutan.

Read more

Visible from space, the Great Rift runs for over four thousand miles. It creates, connects and defines one of the wildest and most charismatic landscapes in the world. The first episode titled Fire, not surprisingly, featured many of the Great Rift’s volcanoes. Approximately 80% of Africa’s volcanoes are situated alongside or within the Great Rift, and within the past 150 years, more than 110 eruptions have been reported from 18 locations, while another 112 volcanoes have been diagnosed as potentially active.

Such a visually and physically dramatic landscape no doubt warrants study however it wasn’t until 2003 that an entirely new species of Old World monkey was discovered in the highland forests on the slope of Mount Rungwe in Tanzania. The kipunji (rungwecebus kipunji) is not only unique in having evaded classification for so long, but the kipunji is also an oddity in evolutionary terms.

Initially assumed to be a species of mangabey, it wasn’t until a DNA sample was analysed that biologists realised the kipunji wasn’t just a new species, in fact it was so different from anything else that it has now been reclassified into a genus of its own – the first new genus of primate described in 83 years. To complicate things further, the kipunji are thought to be more similar to baboons than anything else, perhaps having readapted to life in the trees, or the population itself being cut off from other relatives due to a volcanic eruption (prior to baboons evolving to live on the grasslands of Africa). The kipunji also posseses a unique call, described as a ‘honk-bark’, which distinguishes it from its ‘assumed’ relatives, the grey-cheeked mangabey and the black crested mangabey, whose calls are described as ‘whoop-gobbles’.

Approximately 1,100 kipunji’s are resident in the Ndundulu Forest Reserve, an unprotected forest, and in Kitulo National Park on Mount Rungwe. The forest on the slopes of Rungwe is highly degraded, and fragmentation of the remaining forest threatens to split that population into three smaller populations. The monkey is classified as a critically endangered species by the IUCN. Furthermore, a recent Wildlife Conservation Society team found that the monkey’s range is restricted to just 6.82 square miles of forest in the two isolated regions.

With a trade-mark quiff and charismatic demeanor, the kipunji will no doubt have gained a few fans since their appearance in the BBC documentary and with this wider exposure will hopefully come the protection of the Kitulo National Park and the Ndundulu Forest Reserve, so that despite their mysterious past, their future existence may be ensured.

For more information on the kipunji’s discovery and the experience of filming the kipunji at Mount Rungwe, click on the link below to read Felicity Egerton’s article for the BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/expeditions/tanzaniashighlife/stories/kipunji

Article by Matt Walker, BBC Earth News – http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8472000/8472831.stm

The apes created the movie using a specially designed chimp-proof camera given to them by primatologists.

The film-making exercise is part of a scientific study into how chimpanzees perceive the world and each other. It will be screened within the Natural World programme “Chimpcam” shown on BBC Two at 2000GMT on Wednesday 27 January.

Making the movie was the brainchild of primatologist Ms Betsy Herrelko, who is studying for a PhD in primate behaviour at the University of Stirling, UK. ver 18 months, she introduced video technology to a group of 11 chimpanzees living in a newly built enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo, UK.

The enclosure, which contains three large interlinked outdoor arenas, as well as a series of smaller rooms in which the apes can be studied by researchers, is the largest of its kind in the world. Despite the fact that the chimps had never taken part in a research project before, they soon displayed an interest in film-making.

Ms Herrelko set the chimps two challenges.

The first was to teach the chimps how to use a touchscreen to select different videos.

By doing so, Ms Herrelko could investigate which types of images chimps prefer to watch.

The second challenge was to give the apes a “Chimpcam”, a recording camera housed in a chimp-proof box.

Chimps both in captivity and the wild will spontaneously use tools. Some use wooden hammers to break open nuts, others use rocks, while many use varying styles of stick to fish for termites and honey.

On top of the box was a video screen that showed live images of whatever the camera was pointing at.

Initially, the chimps were more interested in each other than the video technology, as two male chimps within the study group vied to become the alpha male, disrupting the experiment.

But over time, some of the chimps learned how to select different videos to watch.

For example, the chimps could use a touchscreen to decide whether to watch footage of their outside enclosure, or the food preparation room, where zoo staff prepare the chimps’ meals.

The results still have to be analysed in detail, but it seems the chimps did not prefer to watch any of these images over the others.

Ms Herrelko is not sure why, but it could be that the images shown were too familiar to the chimps or because they have no way of asking to see something different.

Then in the final the final stage of her work, she investigated what happened when she gave the Chimpcam to the whole group. A captive chimpanzee watching a video of a wild chimp Watching wild relatives

Gradually, the chimps started playing with the Chimpcam, carrying it around the enclosure.

The chimps soon became interested in the camera view screen on the Chimpcam box, watching what happened as they moved the Chimpcam around filming new images.

Overall, they were more interested in the Chipcam viewfinder than they were the touchscreen in the research room.

The apes are unlikely to have actively tried to film any particular subject, or understand that by carrying Chimpcam around, they were making a film.

However, the result, as well as providing new information on how chimps like to see the world, may yet go down in television history.

The UN exclaims that, “…as natural systems such as wetlands and forests are gradually eroded, we lose the services that they perform for free. These include purification of air and water, protection from extreme weather events, and the provision of materials for shelter and fire.”

As a direct result of human activity (city expansion, infrastructure and farming), the pace at which species are becoming extinct is roughly 1,000 times greater than the natural or ‘background’ rate of extinction. Some biologists believe that we are in the midst of ‘Earth’s sixth great extinction’ – the previous five having being caused by natural events such as asteroid impacts.

The Year of International Biodiversity is an opportunity to raise the alarm for accelerated species extinction, and to celebrate the diversity of life on earth before it really is too late.

Follow and support the Year of International Biodiversity here (http://www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/).

Other links:
(http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/).

The chilling arctic weather front currently moving across the UK is of concern to zoos and safari parks – some turning to the offer of hot potatoes as a method to keeping their resident primate populations warm.

Photograph: Knowsley Safari Park/PA

Original article: UK faces coldest winter in 30 years

The article by Chris Green from The Independent details the various calls made by Campbell’s monkeys with an aim to interpreting what they mean.

The article reads:

The secret behind the origins of human language may lie in the jungle chatter of a species of monkey, a team of scientists has claimed.

The researchers spent months studying the calls of the Campbell’s monkey, or Cercopithecus campbelli, which lives in the forests of the Tai National Park in the Ivory Coast. They discovered that the animals not only use distinctive alarm calls to warn of specific predators nearby but can also combine them with other sounds to convey extra information – in much the same way humans use prefixes and suffixes.

The team, led by Professor Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St Andrews, studied alpha male monkeys whose main task is to look out for potential threats and disturbances before using their calls to alert the rest of their group.

Simian speech: A brief dictionary

• *”Boom” Look out, falling branch, move!
• *”Boom-boom” Come to me
• *”Krak” Look out, a leopard!
• *”Krak-oo” Watch out, a general warning
• *”Hok” There’s a crowned eagle up there
• *”Hok-oo” Movement above
• *”Boom-boom, krak-oo krak-oo” Look out – falling tree
• *”Boom-boom, hok-oo krak-oo hok-oo” We are near another group of monkey

Continue reading (this article)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/science/12monkey.html (New York Time’s article)

The tiny spectral tarsier, one of the shortest primates in the world, has been filmed hunting at night in the jungle of Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The tarsier stands 13cm (five inches) tall and has massive eyes that enable it to see in the dark. It belongs to the only group of carnivorous primates.

Tarsiers have evolved little in the past 45 million years and may have separated early from other primates.

A BBC team filmed the tiny tarsier for the natural history series Life.

Watch the BBC’s tarsier footage

Two troops of baboons have also been filmed  entering  a pitched battle.

The fight, filmed by the BBC Natural History Unit, appears to be triggered by male baboons attempting to steal females from the harems of rivals.

Usually, the two troops live relatively peacefully alongside one another on a 1km-long cliff in the Awash National Park in Ethiopia.

Watch the BBC’s Hamadryas baboons footage

But they violently clash in a sequence broadcast as part of the series Life.

“The scale of the fight and the way the males are so dominant is just unparalleled in primate society”

says Miss Rosie Thomas, a member of the Life production team who filmed the sequence.

A United Nations conservation expert has made calls for the inclusion of Gorilla protection in the global climate negotiations in Copenhagen. The official explained that Gorillas play a vital role in maintaining their Forest habitat – which plays a ‘central role in the planet’s climate regulation.’

Commencing next week on the 7th December, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will host the world’s leaders as they aim to set realistic and effective targets for preventing global warming.

Continue reading here:

http://www.africanconservation.org/content/view/1729/405/

http://en.cop15.dk/

Supported by the Little Bridge House children’s hospice,  Yebo’s Primate Day focused on communication and feelings, using a specially crafted primate communication board and creative activities. The day started with a look at primates from all over the world so the children could understand how primates behave and communicate, as well as understanding the problems they face in the wild. Activities also focused upon play and interaction in primate societies, especially chimpanzees, but also exploring disabilities shared by monkeys and apes  and learning about how primates in the wild such as chimpanzees can have family members that die.

Supported by Yebo volunteers Katja Festuel and Helen Benwell the communication board contained drawings of chimpanzees, bonobos and vervet monkeys in different situations with blank faces. On another board were velcro primate faces with different feelings and expressions drawn on such as confused, happy, sad, angry etc. The children thought about different situations the primates may be in such as ‘having no friends’ where they then matched up the faces to the drawings on the board.

The end of the day was rounded off with computer games involving animal wildlife computer puzzles and an interactive computer game originally produced for the Zoological Society of London by Alasdair Davies from the Great Primate Handshake.  The children went away with primate monkey calendars given to them by Yebo.

“UCT’s Baboon Research Unit (BRU) has paved the way for the Cape Peninsula’s baboon population to be elevated from the status of a little known, much maligned population to one that may prove to be the benchmark for the successful management and conservation of primates in conflict with humans,”
says Onno Huyser, Manager of the Table Mountain Fund, an associated trust of WWF South Africa.

After more than 350 years of being threatened by habitat erosion, urban sprawl and agricultural activities, baboons and their habitat could soon be under less threat, thanks to the University of Cape Town’s BRU who created digital maps showcasing this species home range. These maps have been accepted by Strategic Environmental Management Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEAD&P) in the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town, meaning that both of the authorities responsible for land use and development in the Cape Peninsula are now equipped with information about current baboon landscape requirements.

The maps form part of a PhD study conducted by Tali Hoffman under the supervision of Dr Justin O’ Riain who heads up the BRU. The study was funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) through its associated trust, the Table Mountain Fund (TMF) and SANParks.

Hoffman says: “This project is the first population-level study of primates to be conducted at such a fine-scale and has important conservation implications for all wildlife populations that are being displaced through habitat loss and fragmentation.”

Thousands of hours were spent collecting data in the field as well as sourcing data from GPS-tracking collars. Together these produced over 25 000 GPS points which were used to build the baboon home range maps.

While these maps may not prevent further erosion of natural habitats, they do allow for all interested and affected parties to have their say on future transformation of baboon home ranges. According to Hoffman, the involvement of land authorities at this level of baboon management could be the single most important piece of the baboon conservation puzzle on the Cape Peninsula.

“If developers can motivate to the authorities why urban areas should sprawl further into existing natural areas then they must do this with the new ‘baboon layer’ in mind. These maps effectively empower the baboons by empowering the authorities that are ultimately responsible for their management,” says Hoffman.

Five years ago managers of the Cape Peninsula baboon population were in the dark on basic information such as whether the number of baboons was increasing or decreasing. The inception of the Baboon Research Unit is thus arguably one of the most important events in the history of managing the Peninsula baboons. In five years, studies conducted by the unit have provided management with data on the population dynamics, genetics, parasites, spatial ecology, marine foraging, the monitor programme and measures to mitigate human-baboon conflict on the Peninsula.

Hoffman adds: “For too long we have assumed that baboons will be fine as long as there are mountains for them to hide in. The maps provided by this study tell a very different story and warn that failure to protect suitable low lying habitats within areas currently exploited by baboons will result in elevated human-baboon conflict. These maps therefore provide an important step in preventing an escalation of conflict and furthermore recognize baboons as part of the Peninsula landscape.”

You can read the Great Primate Handshake’s interview with Tali Hoffman here.