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, had 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 jap patas monkey, Erythrocebus patas pyrrhonotus, which is discovered extra extensively throughout elements of East and Central Africa, from central Kenya to northeastern Chad. They give the impression of being related, and in addition reside in open woodlands at roughly the identical elevation. However even earlier than 2015, when southern patas had been nonetheless current in Kenya, the 2 species had been separated by a whole bunch of kilometers. They nearly actually by no means mingled.
Their related look — and different similarities akin to their massive residence ranges and their behavior of feeding on the gum of whistling thorn timber, Acacia drepanolobium — was partly accountable 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 characteristic 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 bunch of eight people and one solitary animal. All three of those sightings had been made inside acacia woodlands in western elements 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 informed 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 elements of southern Kenya, has shrunk by round 85% because the early twentieth century, she mentioned.
“This could additional alert the Tanzanian authorities accountable for the conservation of the nation’s biodiversity, in addition to nationwide and worldwide conservation organizations,” De Jong mentioned.
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 group improvement work within the Serengeti’s western hall. Grumeti Fund workers and tour guides from Singita, an area ecotourism agency, recorded the second-last recognized sighting of southern patas monkeys in 2022. Lohay mentioned that 15 years in the past the animals had 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 completely.”
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 mentioned. This may embody organising digicam traps within the southern patas’s final refuge within the western Serengeti.
“Our speedy precedence is to find out the present inhabitants dimension and establish the causes behind their decline,” he mentioned. “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 anything.
“Herders are an excellent supply of knowledge, [especially] when it considerations historic information,” Butynski mentioned. “Folks typically readily establish 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 danger to the monkeys as they attempt to attain scarce water sources.
“Home canines kill primates, together with the semiterrestrial patas monkey,” Butynski mentioned.
He added he worries that with out pressing conservation motion, the southern patas will turn into the second African primate to go extinct lately. Miss Waldron’s purple 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 might be subsequent, and shortly,” Butynski mentioned.
This article by Ryan Truscott was first printed 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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