Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Thus, the status of the Mauritian macaques is currently questionable. Given
their negative influences on the island, there is little enthusiasm to protect them.
However, their religious importance, their value for tourism, their research
interest as a model for ecology, biology, and anthropology, their humane
treatment, and the importance of maintaining a viable population for breed-
ing purposes for sustainable export necessitate some compromise and a long-
term, feasible plan to maintain some natural populations of this intriguing and
important primate. Furthermore, complete eradication of the monkeys would
be next to impossible as well as extremely costly. A much more sound strategy
is to control the population.
This is a valuable, interesting, extremely social and intelligent animal from
which we can learn a great deal. This knowledge should not be restricted to
our interest in our own health, but also to our understanding of non-human and
human behavior, ecology and evolution. We realize that a solution to saving
some “natural” populations on this island will not be simple or easy, but we
hope that a solution to this problem will be attempted and achieved.
Acknowledgements
Financial support was provided by NSF grants BNS-7916561 and BNS-
7917931, Explorers Club of New York, the Boise Fund, Sigma Xi, the
Scientific Research Society, the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, the National
Geographic Society, the Frederick Voss Fund of the American Museum of
Natural History, and Washington University. We are grateful to the Médine
Sugar Estate Co. Ltd., the Cie Sucrière de Bel Ombre Ltd., Bioculture Ltd.,
Noveprim Ltd., Biodia Ltd., Patricia Koenig, Sandra Lefin, David Lagane,
Eric Baboo and Nada Padayatchy for their assistance and helpful advice. We
thank two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their excellent sugges-
tions. We also thank Cassie Snyder for her assistance in the preparation of this
manuscript.
References
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macaca
from an ecological perspective. Ph.D. thesis,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
Berenstein, L. 1986. Responses of long-tailed macaques to drought and fire in Eastern
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