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An Acute Conservation Threat to Two Tarsier Species in the Sangihe Island Chain, North Sulawesi, Indonesia M Yron S Hekelle and a Gus S Alim

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An Acute Conservation Threat to Two Tarsier Species in the Sangihe Island Chain, North Sulawesi, Indonesia M Yron S Hekelle and a Gus S Alim An acute conservation threat to two tarsier species in the Sangihe Island chain, North Sulawesi, Indonesia M yron S hekelle and A gus S alim Abstract Until recently the conservation status of seven of that ‘the first step in tarsier conservation is to change their the nine species of tarsier on the IUCN Red List was Data Data Deficient status’. Wright went on to identify four high Deficient, and determining the status of these species has priority taxa, one of which was Tarsius sangirensis. Shekelle been a priority. In addition, there are believed to be numer- & Leksono (2004) proposed a conservation strategy for the ous cryptic tarsier taxa. Tarsiers have been proposed as flag- Sulawesi biogeographical region using tarsiers as flagship ship species to promote conservation in the biogeographical species. They identified 11 populations of tarsiers in the region that includes Sulawesi and surrounding island chains. region that warranted further taxonomic investigation, and Therefore, identifying and naming cryptic tarsier species and developed a biogeographical hypothesis for the region that determining their conservation status is not only a priority predicted the possible existence of numerous other species. for tarsier conservation but also for regional biodiversity Together with the five species they recognized from the conservation. Two tarsier species, Tarsius sangirensis from region, this meant that Sulawesi and surrounding island Sangihe Island and Tarsius tumpara from Siau Island, occur groups were subdivided into 16 or more biogeographical within the Sangihe Islands, a volcanic arc stretching c. 200 km subregions of tarsier endemism. This distribution was hy- north from the northern tip of Sulawesi. The geographical pothesized to have resulted from tectonic activity that information system database from The Nature Conserv- brought a proto-Sulawesi archipelago together during the ancy’s Sulawesi Ecoregional Conservation Assessment was Miocene and Pliocene, and which had been further mod- used in conjunction with field surveys to determine the ified by range fragmentation during the Pleistocene. Each conservation status of these two species. Our results show of these subregions could hypothetically contain an en- that both species are at risk from a small extent of occurrence demic tarsier taxon, many of which were suspected to be and area of occupancy, small population size, high risk of under threat of extinction. Thus, they proposed a plan to volcanism, high human population density, fragmented identify and name all cryptic tarsier species in these bio- populations (many of which are in marginal habitat), and geographical subregions, determine their conservation sta- lack of conservation areas for either species. In addition, tus, and use these taxa as flagship species to promote there are no available ex situ conservation options. The Siau conservation. population is further threatened by hunting for bushmeat. Thus, establishing the conservation status of tarsier Our recommendations are that T. sangirensis be categorized populations is important both for tarsier conservation and as Endangered and T. tumpara, which was included on the for promoting biodiversity conservation throughout the 2006–2008 list of the world’s top 25 most endangered biogeographical region that includes Sulawesi and the off- primates, as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. shore island groups that share a similar biota. Here we use Keywords Bushmeat, hunting, Indonesia, Sangihe, Siau, the geographical information system (GIS) database of the Tarsius sangirensis, Tarsius tumpara. Sulawesi Ecoregional Conservation Assessment (Summers et al., 2005) prepared by The Nature Conservancy, in conjunction with field surveys, to determine the conserva- Introduction tion status of the two tarsier populations thought to be most highly threatened: T. sangirensis from Sangihe Island, one of right (2003) noted that most species of tarsier, small the four priority taxa identified by Wright (2003), and nocturnal primates of the genus Tarsius, were W a newly described species, Tarsius tumpara (Shekelle et al., categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, and 2008), which had formerly been regarded as an insular population of T. sangirensis.AsT. sangirensis is regarded as MYRON SHEKELLE* (Corresponding author) Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Studies, Faculty of Mathematics and Science, University of a priority species for conservation, it follows that a smaller, Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia. E-mail [email protected] insular population formerly regarded as T. sangirensis is also y AGUS SALIM The Nature Conservancy in Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia. a priority species. The new species, from Siau Island, was *Current address: tarsier.org, 16968 Peterson Road, Burlington, WA, USA. included on the 2006–2008 list of the world’s top 25 most y 2007 Current address: Taman Yasmin V, Bogor, Indonesia. endangered primates (Mittermeier et al., ). Received 24 July 2006. Revision requested 28 September 2006. Both Sangihe and Siau Islands are in the Sangihe Islands Accepted 3 February 2007. archipelago, a volcanic arc island chain in the Sulawesi Sea ª 2009 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 43(3), 419–426 doi:10.1017/S0030605309000337 Printed in the United Kingdom Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.234, on 30 Sep 2021 at 05:19:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605309000337 420 M. Shekelle and A. Salim between Sulawesi and the Philippine island of Mindanao with the name Great or Greater affixed to the beginning, e.g. (Fig. 1). Sangihe and Siau Islands are c. 60 km apart and are Greater Sangi Island) and Siau (alternatively spelled Siao). separated by ocean depths . 1,000 m, far greater than the Genetic data indicate that T. sangirensis is a monophyletic 180 m depth often used to estimate exposed land during clade and the sister taxon of tarsiers from northern and Pleistocene glacial maxima (Fig. 1). Because of the way that central Sulawesi, with a genetic distance consistent with island arcs form, it is most likely that each island was formed isolation for a period of at least a few million years (Shekelle and colonized independently by plants and animals. Because et al., 2008). Given the great ocean depths between islands in of this, and the distance between the islands, it is highly the Sangihe chain and their geological history as an island unlikely that any recurrent gene flow is occurring or has ever arc, Brandon-Jones et al. (2004) suggested that the tarsiers occurred between the islands’ tarsier populations. In the on Siau could be taxonomically separable from T. sangir- original description, T. sangirensis was described (Meyer, ensis, and suggested surveying for the presence of tarsiers on 1897) as an insular form from the islands of Sangihe other islands in the chain. In March 2005 a team led by MS (alternatively spelled Sangi and Sangir, and alternatively located tarsiers on Siau Island. FIG. 1 The locations of Sangihe and Siau Islands within the Sangihe Island archipelago, with bathymetric contours. The rectangle on the inset indicates the location of the main figure in Indonesia. ª 2009 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 43(3), 419–426 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.234, on 30 Sep 2021 at 05:19:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605309000337 Conservation status of tarsiers 421 Until recently T. sangirensis was categorized as Data of slight and moderate disturbance, respectively. Thus, for Deficient on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2007). Supriatna estimating potential population sizes of T. sangirensis and et al. (2001), however, recommended a conservation status T. tumpara in the two biogeographical subregions we used of Endangered (based on criteria B1a,b,c), with an estimated the following typical tarsier densities: primary forest, 156– 2 potential population size of 3,000 animals, based upon 270 km- (Gursky, 1997; Merker, 2003), secondary forest, 70– 2 comparisons with other tarsiers for which density estimates 130 km- (MacKinnon & MacKinnon, 1980;Merker,2003), 2 2 exist, an extent of occurrence of 101–5,000 km , and an area and brush 45 km- (Merker, 2003). For unknown habitats we 2 of occupancy of 11–500 km . In this study we assess the produced a range of potential population estimates based on conservation status of T. sangirensis and T. tumpara using the assumption that unknown could be any habitat type 2 GIS data, field surveys, and density estimates for the closest except primary forest, i.e. 0–130 km- . Using these estimates in relatives of these taxa for which we have data. We draw conjunction with GIS data allows us to provide conservation attention to the conservation problems that tarsiers face on assessments of the two tarsier species based upon falsifiable the Sangihe Islands, and recommend a Red List status for hypotheses for extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, both tarsier species. habitat, habitat quality, tarsier population size estimates, human population density and geology. Methods Surveys for tarsiers in this study were part of a larger phylogeographical study of tarsiers with sampling at c. 100 km We treated Sangihe and Siau Islands as biogeographical intervals but with sampling ad libitum within a site. The subregions, each of which is a cluster of several islands objectives of that study were to collect genetic and mor- separated from each other by shallow ocean (, 180 m). phological data via trap-and-release, and acoustic data by We estimated the maximum extent of occurrence for recording the tarsiers’ dawn duet calls. Potential trapping T. sangirensis and T. tumpara to be equal to the land area localities were identified during daylight hours by smelling of the Sangihe and Siau Island subregions, respectively. for the presence of tarsier scent marks, which are a good GIS data from the Sulawesi Ecoregional Conservation indicator of the presence of tarsiers.
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