Is 2020 the year when primatologists should cancel fieldwork? A reply

The aim of this article is to explore the impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on primate-related conservation work. The withdrawal of primatologists and conservation staff from field research can lead to a number of detrimental effects not just on conservation but also on local communities in low- and middle-income countries. Inequalities in access to health and financial insecurities may be drivers for the illegal wildlife trade and the lack of tourism and research activity may allow poachers to work with greater ease. The paper also looks at how conservation organizations and research bodies should modify their field protocols by developing robust occupational health policies that will not only make field work safer but also support local staff as they are likely to face the greatest threats to their physical health, psychological health, and economic loss from COVID-19. By adopting a One Health approach that considers the complex interactions between human and primate health, researchers will be able to find new ways of working not only to protect primates but understand how they adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.     

Conservation needs ethologv

With the number of species and near-to-natural habitats rapidly dwindling, conservation has become an undebatable necessity. There have been some laudable, successful species conservation projects but there have also been many deplorable failures. The failures are exacerbated by limited funding. Conservationists depend on funding by national government organizations (NG0s) and by private sponsors, more than other practitioners of organismic biology do. To maximize their success, conservationists would be well advised to heed the messages resulting from animal behaviour study (i.e. ethology) and/or to involve ethologists in their projects. Here, I illustrate how ethology can benefit both in situ and ex situ conservation measures; the need for conservation-oriented behaviour research is paramount.     

The Next Direction for Primatology? A Commentary on Setchell (2013)

Primatologists were asked to submit their “ideas for the Big Questions that remain unanswered in Primatology” and, from this, Setchell (2013) grouped the 170 responses into 11 broad themes. This exercise created a valuable tool that can help primatologists identify both the “missing gaps” and current broad overarching themes within our field. In this commentary, we offer our perspective on the methodology and results of this survey. By considering the 11 themes more holistically, primatologists can more easily address a broader range of questions, methods, and outcomes for their research endeavors and conservation efforts. Ultimately, the results of this survey should enable researchers and policymakers to recognize gaps in our knowledge and plan how to proceed with new research initiatives and funding applications. The identified themes should also provide a reference point for new avenues of investigation, and we are hopeful that this list can encourage interdisciplinary research if primatologists consider the overlaps across the themes. However, as Setchell noted, as some key areas of research were omitted from the list, the 11 themes should be used as a tool for guidance in expanding our research horizons and not as a template for the minimum of what is required.     

Conserving social-ecological systems in Indonesia: human-nonhuman primate interconnections in Bali and Sulawesi

An important question asked by primatologists and conservationists alike is: what is the relevance of primates and primate conservation for ecosystem conservation? The goal of this article is to contribute to this dialogue by advocating the use of a research perspective that focuses on the dynamics of human-nonhuman primate sympatry and interaction (i.e., ethnoprimatology) in order to better understand complex social-ecological systems and to inform their conservation management. This perspective/approach is based largely on the recognition that human primates are important components of all ecological systems and that niche construction is a fundamental feature of their adaptive success. To demonstrate the relevance of the human-nonhuman primate interface for ecosystem conservation, we provide examples from our research from two islands in the Indonesian archipelago: Bali and Sulawesi. In Bali, humans and long-tail macaques coexist in a system that creates favorable environments for the macaques. This anthropogenic landscape and the economic and ecological relationships between humans and monkeys on Bali provide insight into sustainable systems of human/nonhuman primate coexistence. In Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, villagers and Tonkean macaques overlap in their use of both forest and cultivated resources. The finding that the Arenga pinnata palm is extremely important for both villagers and macaques points to a conservation management recommendation that may help protect the overall ecosystem; the cultivation and propagation of mutually important tree species at forest-agricultural ecotone as a means to curb crop raiding and to alleviate farmer's perceived need to clear additional forest.     

Researchers' ethical concerns regarding habituating wild-nonhuman primates and perceived ethical duties to their subjects: Results of an online survey

While the process of habituation is essential for researchers to observe primates in their natural habitats, ethical dilemmas may arise from its consequences. We collected data from 286 participants via an online survey to investigate: (a) how primatologists perceive their ethical duties toward their subjects; (b) the extent to which primatologists are concerned about the potential ethical consequences of habituation; and (c) the methods primatologists use to reduce potential harms caused by habituation. Overall, primatologists felt an extremely strong duty to mitigate harms that they may cause (e.g., to not stress individuals during observation, treat injuries, and reunite separated individuals) and expressed very high concern for habituation's potential to increase the vulnerability of their subjects to poaching and disease transfer. Ratings for those items were so high that they could not be included in subsequent exploratory factor analyses that were designed to reveal constructs underlying respondents’ ratings of their ethical duties and concerns. Factor analysis of ratings of ethical duties revealed that primatologists reported a strong duty to mitigate harms caused by other humans and a lower perceived duty to mitigate naturally occurring harmful events. Factor analysis on ethical concern ratings revealed that respondents were concerned about harms during the habituation process, the presence of unhabituated behavior after habituation had been established, and indirect harms of habituation. Concerns for unhabituated behavior and indirect harms were rated slightly higher than concern for harms during the habituation process. To mitigate potential harms, primatologists primarily reported engaging in strategies to reduce stress in their subjects. Our findings reveal a disconnect between primatologists' ratings of their ethical concerns and their reported mitigation practices that may, in part, stem from gaps in knowledge about the true impacts of habituation. We suggest areas of discussion and research in the field necessary to address those gaps.     

Politicized and depoliticized ethnicities,power relations and temporality: insights to outsider research from comparative and transnational fieldwork

The insider and outsider positions in migration studies have conventionally been approached in terms of ethnic or national belonging. Recently scholars have problematized the essentialist approaches to these roles by arguing for the inclusion of multiple intersecting social locations that are at play in the constitution of researcher positionality. Less attention has been paid, however, on how different ethnicities are constructed and how they can become politicized and depoliticized at particular moments during the research process. This article discusses the fieldwork experiences of two “apparent outsiders” to the studied diaspora community. Drawing from our experiences in multi-sited and comparative fieldwork on the Kurdish diaspora, we argue that rather than taking insider and outsider positions as a starting-point to understand researcher positionality, scholars need to look at particular moments of insiderness and outsiderness to grasp how the researcher’s assumed ethnicity becomes politicized and depoliticized during ethnographic fieldwork.     

Narratives of Positionality in Primatology: Foreign/Range–Country Collaborator Perspectives from Africa and South America

International Journal of Primatology - Primate research and conservation may inadvertently reproduce neocolonial dynamics when primatologists from affluent, imperialist nations conduct studies in...     

Males mate with females even after sperm depletion in the two-spotted spider mite

Generally, males increase their reproductive success by mating with as many females as possible, whereas females increase their reproductive success by choosing males who provide more direct and indirect benefits. The difference in reproductive strategy between the sexes creates intense competition among males for access to females, therefore males spend much energy and time for competition with rival males for their reproduction. However, if they do not need to engage themselves into male competition and females are in no short supply, how many females can a male mate with and fertilize? We address this question in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch. In this study, we investigated how many females a young, virgin male mated in 3 h, and checked whether the mated females were fertilized. We found that on average males mated with 12–13 females (range: 5–25). As latency to next mating did not change with the number of matings, the males are predicted to engage in even more matings if the mating trial were continued beyond 3 h. Copulation durations decreased with the number of matings and typically after 11 copulations with females any further copulations did not lead to fertilization, suggesting that males continued to mate with females even after sperm depletion. We discuss why spider mite males continue to display mating and copulation behaviour even after their sperm is depleted.

     

The human–primate interface in the New Normal: Challenges and opportunities for primatologists in the COVID-19 era and beyond

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 and human responses to the resulting COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 have rapidly changed many aspects of human behavior, including our interactions with wildlife. In this commentary, we identify challenges and opportunities at human–primate interfaces in light of COVID-19, focusing on examples from Asia, and make recommendations for researchers working with wild primates to reduce zoonosis risk and leverage research opportunities. First, we briefly review the evidence for zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2 and discuss risks of zoonosis at the human–primate interface. We then identify challenges that the pandemic has caused for primates, including reduced nutrition, increased intraspecific competition, and increased poaching risk, as well as challenges facing primatologists, including lost research opportunities. Subsequently, we highlight opportunities arising from pandemic-related lockdowns and public health messaging, including opportunities to reduce the intensity of problematic human–primate interfaces, opportunities to reduce the risk of zoonosis between humans and primates, opportunities to reduce legal and illegal trade in primates, new opportunities for research on human–primate interfaces, and opportunities for community education. Finally, we recommend specific actions that primatologists should take to reduce contact and aggression between humans and primates, to reduce demand for primates as pets, to reduce risks of zoonosis in the context of field research, and to improve understanding of human–primate interfaces. Reducing the risk of zoonosis and promoting the well-being of humans and primates at our interfaces will require substantial changes from “business as usual.” We encourage primatologists to help lead the way.     

Seasonal Differences in Activity Patterns of Geoffroyi´s Spider Monkeys (<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Ateles geoffroyi</Emphasis>) Living in Continuous and Fragmented Forests in Southern Mexico

Understanding how primates adjust their behavior in response to seasonality in both continuous and fragmented forests is a fundamental challenge for primatologists and conservation biologists. During a 15-mo period, we studied the activity patterns of 6 communities of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) living in continuous and fragmented forests in the Lacandona rain forest, Mexico. We tested the effects of forest type (continuous and fragmented), season (dry and rainy), and their interaction on spider monkey activity patterns. Overall, monkeys spent more time feeding and less time traveling in fragments than in continuous forest. A more leafy diet and the spatial limitations in fragments likely explain these results. Time spent feeding was greater in the rainy than in the dry season, whereas time spent resting followed the opposite pattern. The increase in percent leaves consumed, and higher temperatures during the dry season, may contribute to the observed increase in resting time because monkeys probably need to reduce energy expenditure. Forest type and seasonality did not interact with activity patterns, indicating that the effect of seasonality on activities was similar across all sites. Our findings confirm that spider monkeys are able to adjust their activity patterns to deal with food scarcity in forest fragments and during the dry season. However, further studies are necessary to assess if these shifts are adequate to ensure their health, fitness, and long-term persistence in fragmented habitats.     

The effects of residential ecology on patterns of child work and mother's reproductive success among Indo-Fijians

A central question in human life history theory surrounds the rapid pace of reproduction of human mothers. Accordingly, evolutionary anthropologists have debated who provides assistance to human mothers and how. Here, we develop an embodied capital framework (i.e., a parental investment strategy focused on improving the adult productivity of offspring) to understand urban–rural differences in the extent to which children help to underwrite the costs of their dependence among Indo-Fijians. We employ multiple regression analysis to explore the relationships among various categories of helpful activity, residential ecology and mother's reproductive success and show that, while rural children work more overall compared to urban children, childcare is the only productive activity with any relationship to mother's reproductive success. We conclude by providing support for the general idea that children are potentially important sources of allomaternal help, but emphasize the need for more nuanced models of how such help is provided.     

A place that answers questions: primatological field sites and the making of authentic observations

The ideals and realities of field research have shaped the development of behavioural primatology over the latter half of the twentieth century. This paper draws on interviews with primatologists as well as a survey of the scientific literature to examine the idealized notion of the field site as a natural place and the physical environment of the field as a research space. It shows that what became standard field practice emerged in the course of wide ranging debate about the techniques, personal qualities and site conditions best suited to the scientific study of the natural behaviour of apes and monkeys. Although the laboratory was a constant presence in this debate, the export of techniques from the laboratory to the field was limited, due to concerns that experimental manipulation would destroy the naturalness of the behaviour. The paper goes on to demonstrate the central significance given by primatologists to the unique social, historical and ecological circumstances of particular field sites, and to sketch some of the complexities that fieldworkers contend with in trying to realize their ideals. Primatologists seek field sites that answer their questions; but once their studies become long term, they also need to find questions that answer to ever changing conditions at those sites.     

Where Next? Group Coordination and Collective Decision Making by Primates

Primate groups need to remain coordinated in their activities and collectively decide when and where to travel if they are to accrue the benefits and minimize the costs of sociality. The achievement of coordinated activity and group decision making therefore has important implications for individual survival and reproduction. The aim of this special issue is to bring together a collection of empirical, theoretical, and commentary articles by primatologists studying this rapidly expanding topic. In this article, we introduce the contributions within the special issue and provide a background to the topic. We begin by focusing on decisions that involve a collective transition between a resting and a moving state, a transition we term making the move. We examine whether specific predeparture behaviors seen during transitions represent intentional processes or more simple response facilitation. Next we classify decisions according to the contribution of individual group members, and describe how, and why, certain individuals can have a disproportionate influence over group-mates?? behavior. We then review how primate groups make decisions on the move. In particular, we focus on how variability in group size and spatial organization helps or hinders information transmission and coordination. We end with a discussion of new tools and methodology that will allow future investigators to address some outstanding questions in primate coordination and decision-making research. We conclude that a better integration of concepts and terminology, along with a focus on how individuals integrate environmental and social information, will be critical to developing a satisfactory understanding of collective patterns of behavior in primate systems.     

Managing consequences of climate‐driven species redistribution requires integration of ecology,conservation and social science

Climate change is driving a pervasive global redistribution of the planet's species. Species redistribution poses new questions for the study of ecosystems, conservation science and human societies that require a coordinated and integrated approach. Here we review recent progress, key gaps and strategic directions in this nascent research area, emphasising emerging themes in species redistribution biology, the importance of understanding underlying drivers and the need to anticipate novel outcomes of changes in species ranges. We highlight that species redistribution has manifest implications across multiple temporal and spatial scales and from genes to ecosystems. Understanding range shifts from ecological, physiological, genetic and biogeographical perspectives is essential for informing changing paradigms in conservation science and for designing conservation strategies that incorporate changing population connectivity and advance adaptation to climate change. Species redistributions present challenges for human well‐being, environmental management and sustainable development. By synthesising recent approaches, theories and tools, our review establishes an interdisciplinary foundation for the development of future research on species redistribution. Specifically, we demonstrate how ecological, conservation and social research on species redistribution can best be achieved by working across disciplinary boundaries to develop and implement solutions to climate change challenges. Future studies should therefore integrate existing and complementary scientific frameworks while incorporating social science and human‐centred approaches. Finally, we emphasise that the best science will not be useful unless more scientists engage with managers, policy makers and the public to develop responsible and socially acceptable options for the global challenges arising from species redistributions.     

The Evolution of Conservation Management Philosophy: Science, Environmental Change and Social Adjustments in Kruger National Park

In this ‘perspectives’ article, we share experiences gained from the century-old Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa to illustrate the dynamic complexity of biophysical and socio-political systems, the interactions that occur between them, and the consequences for ecosystem-scale functions and resources and for their management. As in KNP, the social-ecological milieu surrounding many national parks and protected areas is changing rapidly. There will be significant managerial adjustments as human populations grow and the needs for resources accelerate. The changes, driven largely by global-scale environmental shifts as well as by new knowledge, are intimately intertwined with evolving societal perceptions, values, and expectations. Many KNP resource-related issues of the past century originated more internally and were largely environmental, whereas the emerging issues are more external and largely social. Here, we illustrate how interrelated scientific and managerial advances in integrating biophysical and social systems are acting to conserve and rehabilitate resources within KNP, and to aid in their conservation. Where appropriate, we relate these advances to similar examples in the region or other protected areas in the world. Strategies to address emerging issues are identified and discussed—and their combined effects on resource conservation and management are evaluated. In our experience the approach to conservation within KNP has been successful, despite well-intended but damaging management actions in the past. We believe that the perceived success stems from a willingness to continually incorporate new knowledge into management, to foster close working and personal associations among scientists, managers, and rangers, to acquire an intimate knowledge and understanding of the social-ecological system by the administrators as well as by the staff, and to be actively ‘forward’ thinking in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. We accept that many decisions taken today will be challenged by future managers and scientists, and we expect that some will be found wanting as emerging knowledge and continued learning shape future decisions. Further, evolving political, social, and environmental contexts may mean that protected areas will need to be managed in different ways. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of minimizing the permanency and impact of decisions so that today’s actions do not compromise future decisions when meaningful changes need to be made.

Inbreeding depression in non-human primates: a historical review of methods used and empirical data

Offspring born to related parents may show reduced fitness due to inbreeding depression. Although evidence of inbreeding depression has accumulated for a variety of taxa during the past two decades, such analyses remain rare for primate species, probably because of their long generation time. However, inbreeding can have important fitness costs and is likely to shape life-history traits in all living species. As a consequence, selection should have favored inbreeding avoidance via sex-biased dispersal, extra-group paternity, or kin discrimination. In this paper, we review empirical studies on the effects of inbreeding on fitness traits or fitness correlates in primate species. In addition, we report the methods that have been used to detect inbreeding in primate populations, and their development with the improvement of laboratory techniques. We focus particularly on the advantages and disadvantages using microsatellite loci to detect inbreeding. Although the genetic data that are typically available (partial pedigrees, use of microsatellite heterozygosity as an estimate of genomewide inbreeding) tend to impose constraints on analyses, we encourage primatologists to explore the potential effects of inbreeding if they have access to even partial pedigrees or genetic information. Such studies are important because of both the value of basic research in inbreeding depression in the wild and the conservation issues associated with inbreeding, particularly in threatened species, which include more than half of the currently living primate species.     

Conservation priorities for elementary school students: Neotropical and European perspectives

Nature conservation can only be an efficient process if involving different society actors, especially those that have long-term and multiplying effects on how society relates with nature, such as children/students. To delineate nature conservation strategies, we need to understand the drivers that shape peoples’ behaviors and attitudes towards nature; for students this is mostly determined by their past experience and influence of their socio-economic and familiar context. To test these assumptions, we develop a study focused on elementary school students from Portugal and Brazil. In each country we selected two student’s groups representing two distinct socio-environmental contexts: rural and urban populations. Based on a written questionnaire, we aimed at understanding the effect of parental and socio-environmental contexts, gender, prior contact with nature and online news-associated environmental information, on how students prioritize taxa to be conserved. Furthermore, we analyzed how health, economic and touristic values constrain pro-conservation attitudes. Students from urban areas and from Portugal showed a lower probability of having a pro-conservation attitude. Brazilian and rural students may have a more frequent contact with nature and live in regions of higher biodiversity, two factors that may act synergistically to produce those patterns. Positive attitudes towards conservation seem to be over-ruled by health (i.e. self-preservation) and economical (i.e. financial subsistence) interests and values. Moreover, students prioritize for conservation species that are commonly mentioned in the online news, particularly mammals, and plants. Acknowledging that students rank higher health and economical values over conservation ones, as well as the perceptible importance of contacting with nature and the apparent relevance of online news as information vehicles, may increase the chances of improving the efficacy of nature conservation strategies. Furthermore, this information can lead to an improvement of environmental awareness and literacy.