Comprehensive Conservation Profile of Tana Mangabeys

Forests along 60 kilometers of the lower Tana River, Kenya, provide habitat for one of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates, the Tana mangabey (Cercocebus galeritus). There is no current accurate estimate of the mangabey population, but a 1994 census estimated the population at 1,000–1,200. Their habitat has been severely degraded since then: visual estimates indicated that 30% of the forest area has been cleared and product use has increased in > 80% of forests surveyed. As the mean number of mangabey groups per forest is positively correlated with forest area and density of trees, this loss is damaging to the mangabey population. There has also been an increase in mangabey-human conflict, e.g., crop raiding, set traps, mangabeys chased by dogs. Mangabeys exhibit ecological flexibility, but behavioral data come from only a few mangabey groups. A new conservation approach is needed because past approaches, particularly the Tana River Primate National Reserve and a World Bank/Global Environment Facility Project, failed to protect the forests. The failure was mainly due to a disregard of the land-tenure issue within the Reserve, exclusion of local people from decision-making, and neglect of forests outside the reserve. Future actions must include community conservation programs and forest and corridor restoration. Research should focus on traditional management, status of primate groups in severely degraded forests, ecology of additional groups, and a population estimate to inform management as they implement more specific conservation strategies for the species.     

Thermal habitat segregation among morphotypes of whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus: Salmonidae) and invasive vendace (C. albula): a mechanism for co‐existence?

1. Aquatic invasive species can have a variety of negative impacts on the ecosystems they invade. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in the muscle tissue of aquatic organisms have proved useful for evaluating post‐invasion dietary shifts among species. However, oxygen and carbon stable isotopes in fish otoliths have the potential to provide additional data on thermal habitat, diet and metabolism, when investigating interactions among sympatric native and invasive fishes.
2. We conducted oxygen and carbon stable isotope analysis on the otoliths of three morphotypes of native whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) and invasive vendace (Coregonus albula) at two sites within the sub‐Arctic Pasvik watercourse in northern Norway.
3. Mean temperature use among morphotypes and species over the course of the growing season ranged from 7.5 °C to 11.2 °C. Otolith δ¹³C was significantly positively correlated to fish muscle tissue δ¹³C (P < 0.05, r² = 0.53). Significant differences in temperature use and δ¹³C among morphotypes and between species were found in the downstream site but not the upstream site.
4. Complementary partitioning of thermal and dietary resource use in the downstream site coincides with a higher abundance of whitefish, enabling the coexistence of both species. In contrast, vendace were dominant in the upstream site where no differentiation in resource use among morphotypes and between species was evident.
5. This study demonstrates the usefulness of stable oxygen and carbon otolith isotopes for characterising resource use and highlights the importance of investigating thermal habitat use as a factor influencing the success of invasive fishes.