NewsISSN-1040-3027, Vol. 40, No. 1 April 2013 InsiDE: Not Just a Traveler’s Tale: The Tailless Barbary Macaques of Morocco IPPL at 40! Dear IPPL Friend, 1973-2013 A Note from Shirley My favorite part of most Saturdays and Sundays is the gibbon walkaround! I have been working for nonhuman primates for 40 years now. While IPPL fights many overseas battles, we have 33 gibbons to care for right here at IPPL’s Headquarters IPPL: Who We Are Sanctuary. They are my vaccination against burnout—a condition easy to acquire IPPL is an international grassroots in the face of all the cruelty and one that has sidelined many compassionate people. wildlife protection organization. It was First I walk past Palu-Palu, a gorgeous beige gibbon sent to us when the Maui founded in 1973 by Dr. Shirley McGreal. Zoo closed down. He often takes a position in his runway where he has a good view Our mission is to promote the conservation of me at my desk, drinking my morning coffee. and protection of all nonhuman primates, As I walk past him and down the pathway, Louie-Louie and Michelle swing up great and small. and down, ignoring my presence. I take a left turn and move along the runway to IPPL has been operating a sanctuary in check in on Peppy and Helen. Summerville, South Carolina, since 1977. Peppy is a retired lab gibbon who was infected as a baby with a cancer virus There, 33 gibbons (the smallest of the apes) that (fortunately) was defective. He and Helen always come over for a friendly live in happy retirement. greeting. Then on to Elizabeth and Ahimsa. Elizabeth, like Peppy, is a frequent IPPL also helps support a number of thumb-sucker. other wildlife groups and primate rescue Close by are Maynard and Gus, both former pets, and lab veteran Gibby who centers in countries where monkeys and came here as a bachelor but now shares his life with Tong, our dazzling golden apes are native. gibbon. Maui, Palu-Palu’s son, lives nearby with Speedy. IPPL News is published thrice-yearly. Arun Rangsi, our first lab gibbon, watches us from his high observation tower, while his mate Shanti relaxes below. Nearby, Igor lives in a private area because About the Cover of his psychological problems. He can watch lots of wildlife from his cozy house. Barbary macaques are tailless monkeys Then I move on to the field behind the animal care cottage where twelve more native to Morocco and Algeria, with a gibbons live, including Courtney, whom we hand-reared from infancy. She now small but famous non-native population lives with lab veteran Whoop-Whoop but still enjoys human visitors. ensconced on the Rock of Gibraltar. Thank you to everyone who has helped us be in a position to care for so many These hardy and adaptable monkeys amazing animals. were once widespread. Now they are threatened by habitat loss and other Best wishes, negative consequences of their contact with humans. Earlier this year, IPPL sent our investigative zoologist and photojournalist Keri Cairns to update us Shirley McGreal on the status of these unique monkeys. IPPL Founder and Executive Director Read about Keri’s trip starting on page 16. In This Issue: Action Item! Page Malaysia’s monkey massacre 3 CITES: a global wildlife conference 4 Protest Ethiopian Airlines 6 Wildlife friends in Thailand 7 Meeting Pharanee of Highland Farm 8 Protest the Pata Zoo 9 Freedom for 25 Malawi baboons 11 Colobus mother and baby reunite 14 Barbary macaques: a report 16 Little Fireface: hope for slow lorises 24 U.S. primate import stats 2012 26 IPPL’s Tong and Gibby–together! 27 2 IPPL | April 2013 www.ippl.org News A Malaysian Monkey Massacre Nearly 200,000 long-tailed which the macaques are unlikely macaque monkeys have been killed to inhabit. This can lead to a by the government in Malaysia gross overestimation of the actual over the past two years. A March population.” 18 article in the online Malaysian Long-tailed macaque monkeys newspaper The Star reported that are certainly widespread and Perhilitan (Malaysia’s Department adaptable animals who are of Wildlife and National Parks) has capable of living in urban and been responsible for this massive, other disturbed environments. ongoing slaughter, totaling 87,900 Unfortunately, this can lead primates in 2011 and 97,200 in to problems with their human 2012. These were all apparently neighbors. healthy, free-living animals who were killed to reduce “human- “Problematic” primates? macaque conflict.” In response to the negative According to IPPL founder press over the culling, a March 20 and executive director Shirley piece in The Star by the Director McGreal, “There are so many General of Perhilitan stated, “We monkey corpses resulting from the are only culling the problematic cull that they are being cremated in population in urban and sub- the fields.” urban areas and not the macaques’ In addition, Shirley said, a Malaysia’s long-tailed macaques: are in the population that live in protected source had informed her that government’s crosshairs. areas.” It is not clear what the “the slaughter is a ‘direct order criteria are to classify a certain from the Ministry of Environment of IPPL. Although the Director General monkey as “problematic.” Malaysia.’ A few years ago the ministry of Perhilitan estimated the number of In fact, there are many more productive had launched ‘operasi sifar kera’ or macaques in peninsular Malaysia at ways to reduce human-monkey conflicts ‘Operation Zero Macaques.’ Then it 740,000, Keri disputes this figure. in urban areas. These include public turned into ‘operasi basmi kera,’ or As Keri told IPPL, “The long-tailed education, proper sanitation procedures, ‘Operation Reducing of Macaques.’ macaque is described by scientists as and contraceptive campaigns. Such My source told me, ‘They have target an ‘edge’ species.” This means that measures have already been used with numbers of macaques to cull for every the species is most commonly found success in Hong Kong and Singapore. state in peninsular Malaysia, resulting along the coast (which accounts for its The next Malaysian general election in this mass murder.’” other common name, the crab-eating has been scheduled for May 5, and the macaque), by rivers, at forest edges, unrest around this event will likely put An “insane” cull and in areas disturbed by humans. As a all unrelated matters on hold. Once the “This is an insane amount of monkeys result, “population surveys are carried votes have been counted, however, let us to cull,” said zoologist Keri Cairns, out at these places, as they are easily hope that a renewed public outcry will put who has done investigations into the accessible. The population data is then a halt to this inhumane and unsustainable plight of wild macaque species for extrapolated to include forested areas, program. Protest the Malaysian Monkey Cull! Please write in protest to the Malaysian ambassador to your country; the address of the U.S. ambassador is below, but others can be found online (http://my.embassyinformation.com/). Point out that this level of slaughter is both shockingly inhumane and unsustainable. Explain that there are many more productive ways to reduce human-monkey conflicts in urban areas, including public education, proper sanitation procedures, and contraceptive campaigns. Datuk Othman Hashim, Malaysian Ambassador Embassy of Malaysia 3516 International Court, N.W. Washington, DC 20008 www.ippl.org IPPL | April 2013 3 News CITES CITES (and IPPL) at 40: Insights from Bangkok Conference Helen Thirlway, IPPL Board Member It was heralded at this year’s illegal trade in great apes from African be an exception reserved for particular Special16 Reportth Conference of the Parties and Asian states where these primates circumstances, and yet it had become (CoP16) in Bangkok, Thailand, are native. In addition, there were wider increasingly common. For example, that we were celebrating 40 years of suggested changes to the Convention at CoP9, a total of 69 votes were by the Convention on International Trade in that could impact primate conservation, secret ballot, and many of these votes Endangered Species (CITES). This is the such as a proposal to restrict the use of concerned some of the most controversial primary treaty that oversees the trade in secret ballots, which are threatening the conservation matters on record, such as endangered plants and animals. Delegates integrity and transparency of CITES. marine species, elephants, and ivory trade. from 178 member nations, in addition to As the EU and other supporters of the representatives from non-governmental The lost battle for accountability proposal pointed out during the debate, each organizations who attended as official The proposal concerning secret ballots voting party should be accountable to the observers, were there to mark the event. was dealt with early on, because this people of the country it represents, and how would affect how the Conference of the can this be so if there is no public record on IPPL and CITES Parties was actually run when it came how they voted on specific issues? What was less well trumpeted, though time to vote on proposals. The first day The issue became increasingly knotty no less significant to the world’s primates, the issue came up, the debate was fraught because, before the proposal could was that this year also marks 40 years of with tension and frustration on both sides. actually be voted upon, the parties had IPPL, which has been an observer to the The existing rules of procedure stated to agree what kind of vote was required Convention since the treaty’s inception.