Conservation News
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Conservation news New species of monkey discovered in www.redlist.org/info/categories_criteria2001.html), the Tanzania: the Critically Endangered major criteria being its extremely limited distribution, highland mangabey Lophocebus kipunji fragmentation into two populations, and the likelihood that its abundance is low. In Ndundulu Forest in the A new species of monkey, the first to be discovered in Udzungwas the major concern is that there are likely to Africa since 1984, has been unexpectedly found in two be very few Highland mangabeys remaining, perhaps separate montane forest areas in Tanzania: Ndundulu fewer than 500 animals. Our preliminary surveys found Forest of the Udzungwa Mountains and Rungwe- only three groups, all within a 3 km2 area; previous Livingstone in the Southern Highlands, 350 km from surveys in this forest and discussions with local villagers Ndundulu. The monkey is a mangabey and has been indicated that the mangabey is absent from much of named the Highland mangabey Lophocebus kipunji. The Ndundulu Forest. The forest is in good condition, common name reflects the fact that it is found in forests although its status of Forest Reserve, as it is now classi- at elevations above 1,300 m and as high as 2,450 m, fied, does not provide the degree of monitoring and - where temperatures can drop to 3°C. The species protection that will fully assure survival of this small name, kipunji (pronounced kip-oon-jee), is the name that population of the mangabey. We are continuing efforts local people in the Southern Highlands have for the ‘shy to encourage the Tanzanian government to incorporate monkey’ they reported seeing from time to time in the Ndundulu Forest Reserve into adjacent Udzungwa forest. The species is a medium-sized brown monkey Mountains National Park, thereby increasing the level of with a very long and broad erect crest of hair on its head; protection. its ventrum and distal third to half of its tail are off-white. The most significant risk to this new species is the con- The facial skin is uniformly black, with no contrasting tinuing severe degradation of the Rungwe-Livingstone eyelid coloration (differential eyelid color is characteris- forests. Unabated logging, poaching, and unmanaged tic of the other genus of mangabeys, Cercocebus). It is resource extraction are of great concern, and unless there arboreal and lacks the characteristic ‘whoop-gobble’ is immediate conservation intervention the narrow forest loud-call vocalization of all other known mangabey corridors linking the forests of this area will be destroyed species in both genera. and the Highland mangabey population in the Southern The discoveries were made independently by Highlands will become fragmented. This will add further researchers engaged in separate conservation projects. pressure to a population estimated to only number The project in the Udzungwa Mountains was focused 250–500 animals. The new Kitulo National Park should, on another mangabey, the Critically Endangered Sanje however, provide increased protection for the portion of mangabey Cercocebus sanjei, one of the world’s most the population in Livingstone Forest. The mangabeys in threatened primates. Whilst attempting to verify reports Mount Rungwe Forest Reserve, in contrast, are severely by Danish ornithologists that the Sanje mangabey was threatened and immediate conservation intervention is present in Ndundulu Forest, the Highland mangabey imperative. was sighted and identified as a new species by C. Ehardt It is astonishing that, in 2004, a completely new species and T. Butynski. Subsequently, Ehardt learnt that of African monkey can be discovered. Additional new T. Davenport and his team, working on a broad-scale primate taxa may yet be found, especially in biodiversity conservation project in the Southern Highlands, had hotspots, which are receiving increased research and discovered the same species of mangabey several months conservation attention. It is also likely, however, that earlier in the course of their work in the Rungwe/ such finds will be of highly threatened taxa, as is the case Livingstone forests. It was thus out of concern for other for the Highland mangabey. This should encourage threatened species and their forest habitat that the everyone engaged in biodiversity conservation to independent discoveries were made. A jointly authored redouble their efforts; without continued research taxa description of the new species was prepared by the two may be lost before they are even discovered. teams (Science, 308, 1161–1164). Carolyn L. Ehardt Data from the two projects suggests that the new Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens mangabey should be categorized as Critically Georgia 30602-1619, USA Endangered using the IUCN Red List criteria (http:// E-mail [email protected] 370 © 2005 FFI, Oryx, 39(4), 370–374 doi:10.1017/S0030605305001225 Printed in the United Kingdom Conservation news 371 Thomas M. Butynski Since the late 1990s more illegal tusks have been Conservation International, P. O. Box 68200, City Square 00200 imported into China than into any other country; most Nairobi, Kenya originate from central Africa. The estimated number of E-mail [email protected] African elephants being poached in central Africa for Tim R. B. Davenport the illegal ivory markets in Asia and Africa, including Wildlife Conservation Society Sudan, is 5,000–12,000 per year, which is above Southern Highlands Conservation Programme P. O. Box 1475, Mbeya, Tanzania sustainable levels. E-mail [email protected] In October 2004 the CITES Conference of the Parties in Bangkok urged member states to comply with CITES, not only to fight ivory smuggling but also to clamp down on unregulated domestic ivory markets by mid March 2005. Soaring sales of ivory items in Sudan There is still no sign of this happening in Sudan. Interna- The Khartoum/Omdurman area of northern Sudan has tional pressure must be mounted on the Sudan govern- become one of the largest ivory markets in the world. A ment to enforce its own wildlife laws, and on the Chinese survey in January–February 2005 sponsored by Care for government to urge its citizens to stop buying ivory the Wild International counted over 11,300 ivory items, trinkets in Sudan. almost all carved from new elephants tusks, in 50 shops. Esmond Martin and Lucy Vigne While Sudan has lost the majority of its elephants to P.O. Box 15510, Mbagathi, 00503 Nairobi, Kenya poachers (numbers fell from c. 133,000 in the early 1970s E-mail [email protected] to c. 40,000 in the early 1990s, with even fewer today), it is likely that most tusks in trade in northern Sudan are now coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Fiji’s Xixuthrus longhorn beetles Baggara horsemen from Darfur and southern Sudanese Vulnerable, not extinct rebel soldiers using modern firearms have been crossing Fiji’s giant longhorn beetles, Xixuthrus heros and X. the border to poach elephants in, for example, the DRC’s ganglebaueri of Viti Levu, and X. terribilis of Vanua Levu Garamba National Park, and taking the tusks into Sudan. and Taveuni (Yanega et al., 2004, Zootaxa, 777, 1–10) are Soldiers from the Sudan army, police and civilians among the largest (14.5 cm body length) and rarest are killing elephants in southern Sudan. The soldiers, beetles in the world. So rare, in fact, that they have been with access to army vehicles, transport the tusks from declared extinct several times in popular books and southern Sudan to sell to traders and craftsmen in on the internet. Recent research by Fiji’s Department Khartoum/Omdurman. An average size tusk (only of Forestry and the Wildlife Conservation Society 2–3 kg nowadays) sells for USD 105 kg-1, as opposed to suggests these beetles should actually be categorized USD 20 kg-1 to traders in the DRC. as Vulnerable (http://www.redlist.org/info/categories_ Sudan bans the sale of tusks that have come from criteria2001.html) on the IUCN Red List. This proposed elephants killed after 1990, but almost all the ivory items status is based on the natural history and rarity of these seen for sale in Khartoum/Omdurman are made and enormous beetles, making them sensitive to loss of natu- sold illegally from new ivory from poached elephants. ral forests, logging of the large host trees they require for The Sudan government rarely seizes new tusks or reproduction, and intensive commercial exploitation. worked ivory at the border, in workshops or in souvenir Very large Cerambycid beetles are often naturally rare, possibly because of strong competition for suitable host outlets. While much of the world has succeeded in reduc- trees. Fijian Xixuthrus larvae could live >10 years and ing worked ivory sales, the Sudan government generally we suspect a single tree may host only one or two larvae, ignores shopkeepers who sell ivory items. at the most, based on observations of larval tunnels (5 cm Chinese residents and visitors to Sudan buy over 75% diameter) in dead wood of a live buabua (Fagrea gracilipes, of the ivory items on display in the shops, mostly Loganiaceae). This tree, the only documented host tree jewellery and small figurines as souvenirs, and smuggle species, had a diameter at breast height (dbh) of 80 cm. them to China in their luggage. There are also South Standing trees of this size are uncommon in Fijian forests Korean and Saudi Arabian buyers. However, the (we estimate <4km-2) and they are targeted in logging expanding numbers of Chinese working in Sudan, in operations. Fijian rainforests and larger trees continue the oil industry, mining and construction, mean that to be lost through logging and agricultural expansion, the 150 ivory craftsmen in Khartoum/Omdurman are and thus populations of beetles are probably declining. busy catering to the growing Chinese demand for ivory The abundance of large trees of suitable host species items – including chopsticks (c.