Des Moines Register
01-03-07
Iowans' plan will help apes enter the wild
A Des Moines scientist and two Iowa State University graduate students have
been asked to draft a strategy.
By PERRY BEEMAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
When a worldwide conservation network wanted a detailed blueprint on how to
successfully reintroduce great apes to the wild, leaders turned to a Des Moines
scientist and two graduate students from Iowa State University.
Benjamin Beck, conservation director at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, is widely
known in research circles for helping return golden lion tamarins, a monkey
species, to the wild in Brazil. That species was close to extinction, but has
rebounded over the past several decades, partly because of the work of Beck
and colleagues.
A 100-member expert committee that is part of the World Conservation Union
asked Beck to write the new reintroduction guidelines for apes. The draft
document is secret until it's peer-reviewed, Beck said. However, it addresses
how to guard against genetic contamination, overcrowding and disease
outbreaks, for example.
The final report should be done by March or April. Sanctuary managers will use it
to give rereleased apes the best chance of survival, Beck said. The union
represents 82 states, 800 nongovernmental groups and 10,000 scientists from
181 countries.
Many scientists fear that the world will lose a species of great apes for the first
time within the next couple of decades. Orangutans are found in the wild only on
Borneo and Sumatra. Borneo has 45,000 to 63,000 orangutans; Sumatra has
7,300.
Bonobos also are in danger of extinction. They are found only in the Congo. The
bonobo population is estimated at between 10,000 and 100,000. In general,
great ape populations are down 80 percent in the past century.
ISU graduate students Kristina Walkup and Michelle Rodrigues assisted in the
plan. They had audited Beck's ape-reintroduction course at Drake University.
Now, the trust is pursuing partnerships with ISU. Walkup and Rodrigues are
students of ISU primatologist Jill Pruetz, who studies chimpanzees in Senegal.
The rerelease of captive apes and monkeys had long been of interest to
Rodrigues. Walkup said a speech by Beck at Drake persuaded her to attend
Beck's class.
When Beck asked for help on the plan, both jumped at the opportunity.
"This is absolutely a big deal," Walkup said. "Michelle and I are thrilled to work on
something that could really have an impact."
Walkup, 26, is from Northfield, Minn. Rodrigues, 25, is from Burr Ridge, Ill.
Great apes often are confiscated from people holding them illegally. Sanctuaries
take in apes injured by villagers or animals. With sanctuaries filling up, the
pressure to send apes back to the wild is growing, Beck said.
The success of the golden lion tamarin was a key reason Beck and the students
were selected to do the bulk of the writing on the draft guidelines. Biologists now
consider the tamarins "endangered," with 1,600 left in the Atlantic coastal
rainforest of Brazil, the monkeys' only habitat. But they were "critically
endangered" when there were 300 in 1983.
The Golden Lion Tamarin Association led an effort that used a combination of
techniques. Workers rescued and relocated remnant populations, restored and
preserved habitat, studied the behavioral ecology of the tamarins, educated the
public on the species, increased law enforcement and reintroduced tamarins.
"It's a very successful model for conservation," said Beck, a longtime leader in
the project. "It is science-based, and it employs multiple strategies."
Great Ape Trust helped pay for work in Brazil toward sustainable agriculture and
forestry, using native trees and plants to produce food in ways that also create
tamarin habitat.
Walkup is working on a doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology. Rodrigues
is writing a master's thesis on the social behavior of spider monkeys in Costa
Rica.
"Dr. Beck's work with golden lion tamarins is one of the most famous
reintroduction projects, and one of the most successful," said Rodrigues. "It's
really exciting, especially this early in my career, to work on something that could
have this much impact."
Reporter Perry Beeman can be reached at (515) 284-8538 or
pbeeman@dmreg.com