For greater than a yr, there have been no confirmed sightings of the critically endangered southern patas monkeys of their final recognized refuge, in western Tanzania. In 2021, fewer than 200 of those lithe-limbed primates, Erythrocebus baumstarki, have been thought to stay within the open woodlands of this area, and scientists now concern the species is edging nearer to extinction.
The southern patas was as soon as confused with the intently associated japanese patas monkey, Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus, which is discovered extra extensively throughout components of East and Central Africa, from central Kenya to northeastern Chad. They appear comparable, and in addition stay in open woodlands at roughly the identical elevation. However even earlier than 2015, when southern patas have been nonetheless current in Kenya, the 2 species have been separated by lots of of kilometers. They virtually definitely by no means mingled.
Their comparable look — and different similarities corresponding to their giant residence ranges and their behavior of feeding on the gum of whistling thorn bushes, Acacia drepanolobium — was partly liable for the shortage of concerted conservation motion wanted to guard the southern patas. The truth that the species is shy and infrequently seen meant taxonomic analysis to find out its standing as a separate species was missing. However Yvonne de Jong and fellow primatologist Tom Butynski labored to have the southern patas acknowledged as a full species in 2021, and to have it included on the checklist of “Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2022-2023.”
The southern patas is because of function once more on this checklist in 2024. The most recent file of a southern patas monkey was that of an grownup male in June 2023, researchers say. In 2022, there have been simply two confirmed sightings: a gaggle of eight people and one solitary animal. All three of those sightings have been made inside acacia woodlands in western components of Tanzania’s Serengeti Nationwide Park.
De Jong and Butynski have maintained a database of southern patas monkey sightings since 2004. Over the previous 20 years, these sightings have dwindled in tandem with the monkeys’ shrinking numbers and geographic vary.
Analysis papers the pair authored in 2009 and 2021, as an example, described Grumeti Sport Reserve, Ikorongo Sport Reserve and Ikona Wildlife Administration Space as strongholds for this species. These are all protected areas that adjoin the highest of the western hall of the Serengeti, the place it juts out towards Lake Victoria.
“Over the previous few years, nonetheless, this monkey has not been reported from any of those three areas,” De Jong instructed Mongabay. “It seems that this species is now current solely within the western Serengeti Nationwide Park.”
Altogether, the monkeys’ vary, which used to increase throughout central and north Tanzania into components of southern Kenya, has shrunk by round 85% for the reason that early twentieth century, she stated.
“This could additional alert the Tanzanian authorities liable for the conservation of the nation’s biodiversity, in addition to nationwide and worldwide conservation organizations,” De Jong stated.
On these uncommon events when southern patas monkeys have been noticed within the wild, and coordinates of the sightings have been recorded, Butynski and De Jong have used these to estimate the monkeys’ present tiny distribution.
George Lohay is head scientist on the Grumeti Fund, a nonprofit that carries out conservation and neighborhood improvement work within the Serengeti’s western hall. Grumeti Fund employees and tour guides from Singita, a neighborhood ecotourism agency, recorded the second-last recognized sighting of southern patas monkeys in 2022. Lohay stated that 15 years in the past the animals have been often noticed within the 24,200-hectare (59,800-acre) Ikona Wildlife Administration Space.
In 2022, his colleagues noticed simply 9 in whole. “Sadly, the inhabitants on this space has since disappeared solely.”
The Grumeti Fund plans to submit a proposal to the state-run Tanzanian Wildlife Analysis Institute to hold out its personal survey of the monkeys subsequent yr, Lohay stated. This may embody establishing digital camera traps within the southern patas’s final refuge within the western Serengeti.
“Our rapid precedence is to find out the present inhabitants measurement and determine the causes behind their decline,” he stated. “This may allow us to make knowledgeable suggestions for conservation actions.”
It’s a worrying signal that the large community of informants comprising researchers, safari guides, camp house owners and cattle herders that Butynski and De Jong have cultivated over the previous 20 years haven’t reported a sighting in 2024. With their distinctive black face masks and russet-colored backs, this species can’t be mistaken for the rest.
“Herders are an ideal supply of knowledge, [especially] when it issues historic data,” Butynski stated. “Individuals typically readily determine this species when proven {a photograph} or drawing.”
If the southern patas monkeys at the moment are restricted to the western Serengeti, the species is probably going marooned there. Areas simply past the park’s western boundary are closely populated with folks and their canines, which pose a grave threat to the monkeys as they attempt to attain scarce water sources.
“Home canines kill primates, together with the semiterrestrial patas monkey,” Butynski stated.
He added he worries that with out pressing conservation motion, the southern patas will change into the second African primate to go extinct in recent times. Miss Waldron’s crimson colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus waldroni), as soon as resident in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, haven’t been recorded by consultants within the wild for greater than 40 years and are believed to be extinct.
“There appears to be a excessive likelihood that the southern patas monkey can be subsequent, and shortly,” Butynski stated.
This article by Ryan Truscott was first revealed by Mongabay.com on 9 December 2024. Lead Picture: A southern patas monkey close to Kirawira Camp, Serengeti Nationwide Park. Picture courtesy of Katie Sanborn.
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