Article published September 25, 2005
Zoos rethink role as wildlife's keeper
In answering 'the call of the wild,' can we keep monkeys from going extinct in U.S. zoos?
Members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association enter a new era with a new mission statement on conservation.
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THE BLADE
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By JENNI LAIDMAN
BLADE SCIENCE WRITER
They look like monkeys trying oh-so-hard to be lions.
The lion-tailed macaque, with a corona of light colored fur encircling a monkey-wise face, is just one of many animal species caught in the headlights as the American Zoo and Aquarium Association adopts a new vision of itself.
Last week at the AZA's annual meeting in Chicago, leadership of the organization that acts as standard-bearer for the 211 zoos and aquariums it inspects and accredits - including the Toledo Zoo - announced what it calls a new "brand platform." In essence, it's a new way for the organization to think about itself. Every program and initiative the AZA undertakes will be reviewed in light of this evolving platform.
In draft form, the platform says that the organization is "Answering the Call of the Wild." The statement continues: "By engaging and inspiring our 143 million annual visitors in the need for active wildlife conservation behavior, the AZA is building America's largest wildlife conservation movement."
Then, there are the monkeys.
The lion-tail macaque is just one of at least two dozen species of old world monkeys in danger of going extinct in American zoos.Some of the species disappearing from zoos still have healthy populations in the wild. But many others are rated vulnerable by the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the organization that assesses the conservation status of species in the wild. A few species are beyond vulnerable, IUCN records show. They're in grave trouble in their native lands. The lion-tail macaque is one of them.
"The outlook for lion-tails is grim," said Scott Carter. Mr. Carter is the director of animal welfare and conservation at the Detroit Zoological Park. He is also coordinator of the AZA Species Survival Plan for macaques. He and fellow SSP members advise zoos on breeding and welfare decisions for the three macaque monkey species still maintained in AZA zoos.
"I think the population is at a crisis point," he said. "We know they are critically endangered in the wild." If handled correctly, "this is a captive population that can save a species," he said.
Instead, U.S. zoos have lost interest in macaques in general. All three species remaining in American zoos are in trouble. Although 125 lion-tails remain in 22 American zoos, few of these animals are of breeding age. Only six females are less than 6 years old, and there has not been a birth in two years.
"The population is aging out," Mr. Carter said.
Another species of macaque, the Sulawasi, has only 36 members remaining in six zoos.
The genetic diversity of captive Sulewasi macaques is so impoverished, new animals must be imported from zoos in other countries if the animal is to survive in captivity, Mr. Carter said.
"We have to have institutions step forward'' to handle the importation and house the animals.
But no one has.
The story is the same in species after species of old world monkeys. The SSP managing mangabey monkeys made the difficult decision to allow sooty mangabeys to disappear from zoos in the United States. There are not enough remaining to restore a genetically healthy population. Sykes monkeys, a species of guenon monkeys from western Africa, are also being phased out. Gelada monkeys, a baboonlike animal with a rock-star mane, are under review to see if they too must be phased out. In the wild the Gelada's status is nearing threatened. The drill, an animal in danger of extinction in its African home, is also under review for zoo phase-out.
Even zoo monkey species still considered genetically diverse enough to continue to breed in captivity are in bleak shape, with low numbers, few institutions willing to take them, and few monkeys able to breed - they're either too old, or have been sterilized.
Once a zoo has an animal in its collection, a Species Survival Plan advises the zoo on breeding decisions. Species Survival Plans, or SSPs, first arose in 1981 to help maintain captive population of gorillas and other big, popular species. By the early 1990s, monkey species got their own SSPs. But by then, it was nearly too late; previous breeding decisions were proving disastrous.
Prior to the existence of SSPs, and another body called the Taxon Advisory Group, which looks at closely related species, each zoo considered only its own collection when deciding who to breed and who to sterilize. As a consequence, populations of some animals may be too small to succeed. For instance, the red-capped mangabey, an African monkey, has only 28 representatives left in American zoos.
"This population, which actually at one point was genetically the most healthy [in zoos], is probably in the worst shape'' among mangabey species, said Leslie Field, the SSP coordinator for mangabeys and the primate supervisor for the Sacramento Zoo.
The golden-bellied mangabey has 20 members in U.S. zoos. In the wild, bush meat hunters are destroying this population.
"But no zoos are coming on or interested in the mangabey," said Ms. Field said. "If you could get bush-meat orphans out [of Africa], where would you put them?"
Why are not U.S. zoos coming forward to add these animals to their collections?
Part of the problem is one of space, said Karen Killmar, associate curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo and SSP coordinator for langurs, another type of African monkey.
Twenty years ago or more, zoos housed pairs of animals in small enclosures.
"Now that we know better that animals have to have larger groups, we've changed our focus, and that requires more space," Ms. Killmar said.
But that's only part of the problem. When a zoo decides to add a species to its collection, it may chose one that it hopes the public will find attractive and interesting.
The black-and-white colobus, with its dramatic good looks, is a perfect example of that.
"We can't fill all the requests" for black-and-white colobus, said Colleen McCann, a curator for the Bronx Zoo and the head of the old world monkey Taxon Advisory Group. "We love them too, but these are in the lowest conservation priority. But no one will take mangabeys and macaques."
"This is really an issue of there not being coordinated management," said Mr. Carter of Detroit.
"We can't make an institution take (a species)," he said. "Everybody wants colobus monkeys. They're very appealing. They're a good exhibit animal. People want that. I happen to think a lion-tail macaque is just as good.… The bottom line is, all the members of AZA are individual zoos, each with its own goals and philosophies, and we can't dictate that to them. As program managers, we try to influence, but we can't dictate."
Elizabeth Stevens, the president of the AZA, and vice president of Disney's Animal Kingdom and Animal Program in Florida, says the problem with old world monkeys is one of zoo evolution: AZA is still learning how to become the nation's biggest conservation organization.
"Zoos have changed a lot over time. If you think about early zoos, they were like little postage stamp collections." Becoming a robust conservation organization takes time.
"The brand platform is meant to be aspirational. It's what you are going to do," Ms. Stevens said. "We're so close."
Bill Foster, director of the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama, and immediate past president of AZA, said often times one species can stand-in for many as zoos educate visitors about conservation.
Visitors can see black-and-white colobus and say, "we need to save it. It's part of that whole ecosystem. All those other animals that do not have public appeal, if we protect the colobus, we will protect the others also."
The giant panda is an example of how one flagship species becomes a stand-in for an entire ecosystem, Dr. Foster said. Where panda habitat is saved, so is the habitat of countless others.
But he said that zoos need to do better at planning, and there are tools in the making to help zoo managers make better decisions about their collections.
"There's only so much space in zoos," said Mary Healy, AZA vice president and director of the Sacramento Zoo. "If we're going to save species, we need to prioritize," she said.
In the meantime, the old world monkeys are waiting, and the people charged with their care are frustrated.
"At a time when our conservation needs are the most, we're not really able to respond," Ms. Field said.
Contact Jenni Laidman at: jenni@theblade.com or 419-724-6507.
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