Wild Zoos: Conservation of Primates in Situ

Abstract

For the last 20 years, conservation biology has been concerned with populations that live in discontinuous habitat. As deforestation and fragmentation continue at an alarming rate, we must develop new means of protecting remaining isolated populations. For managers, knowing the natural history details of all organisms within a fragment will allow for anticipation of interactions and will better predict potential collapse of the system (Janzen, 1986a). The ecological role of primates in a fragmented forest is critical for many reasons. First, primates have a number of beneficial effects on the forest as seed dispersers, pollinators, and ``shapers'' of their habitat (Janzen, 1970; Dirzo and Miranda, 1990a; Murcia, 1996; Garber and Lambert, 1998). Second, primates tend to be large arboreal frugivores and account for a high proportion of the biomass in a forest remnant (Chapman, 1995). Primates may be the top of the food chain in many fragments where carnivores have vanished (Marsh, 1999; Terborgh et al., 2001). And finally, primates tend to be important educational and conservation icons for local people (Savage et al., 1997; Weber, 1995; Dietz and Nagagata, 1995).