Nocturnal Primate Study
Nocturnal Primate Study
Oxford Brookes University, Dr Anna Nekaris, Miss Rachel Munds (American MPhil student at Oxford Brookes University) and Muhammad Ridzwan Ali, (Universiti Malaysia Sabah).
May 2009: Success! Rachel Munds and Ridzwan Ali spotted three lorises and one tarsier in point sampling and line-transect surveys carried out during May 2009. The lorises were found at average heights of 20m, whereas the lone tarsier was only 4m high.
June 2009: The advent of June brought in the first sighting of a female tarsier and her offspring. The infant was still clinging to its mother; its tiny feet and tail barely visible from behind its mother’s long legs. A short observation of these two allowed Ridzwan Ali and Rachel Munds to get a brief glimpse of the young one’s face, before the mother moved the infant to her mouth (like a cat) and leaped away. This amazing sighting, the fourth and fifth tarsier spotted, is clear evidence of the diverse wildlife hosted by the Danau Girang Field Centre and the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
Additionally, the nocturnal researchers have recorded findings of other nocturnal mammals in Danau Girang Field Centre. Three species of civets have been spotted (Malay civet, common palm civet & banded palm civet), the pen-tailed tree shrew and the colugo.
August 2009: On 3rd August 2009 at Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC), a young male tarsier rested on a sapling, not knowing that he would be part of history. Tarsiers are one of the many primate species found in Malaysia, and are characterised by eyes larger than their brain, teeth so sharp they can pierce the bones of a frog or snake, and long legs like rubber bands allowing for spectacular 3 metre leaps! Unlike macaques and orang-utans, however, no systematic study of these charismatic creatures has been undertaken in Malaysia for more than 20 years. Aided by participants in an Oxford Brookes University field course in Primate Conservation and Ecology, DGFC field assistant and student Ridzwan Ali was part of a team to catch and radio collar the tarsier. The small collar, weighing less than 3% the tarsier’s body weight, will not hinder the animal as it goes about its rapid nocturnal forays searching for insects, lizards and other prey, but it will give Ridzwan and his team the ability to track it throughout the night. Being wholly nocturnal, it is otherwise difficult to impossible to keep track of them.
First Primatology Field Course at Danau Girang Field Centre
From 27 July to 16 August, 14 primatology students from US (Arizona State University, Loyola College) and British universities (Oxford Brookes University, Oxford University and Roehampton University) were trained in primatology field work at DGFC. The field course was organised by Dr Anna Nekaris, a reader in primate conservation at Oxford Brookes University and the course tutor of the Primate Conservation Master at the same university, with the assistance of Rachel Munds, a MPhil student from Oxford Brookes University, leading the nocturnal primate project at DGFC.
The students carried out small projects on proboscis monkey survey, proboscis monkey and gibbon vocalisations, long tailed macaques behaviour, nocturnal primates ecology (it is during this field course that the first tarsier was radio-collared, see event below). The Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and its 10 species of diurnal and nocturnal primates offer a great opportunity for primatology research and training. Hopefully, Dr Anna Nekaris will run the same field course next year. For further information, please contact Dr Anna Nekaris or visit the Primate conservation master's website at http://ssl.brookes.ac.uk/primate/