Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Why the link between long-term research and conservation is a case worth making
- 2 Links between research and Protected Area management in Uganda
- 3 The use of research: how science in Uganda's National Parks has been applied
- 4 Long-term research and conservation in Kibale National Park
- 5 Monitoring forest–savannah dynamics in Kibale National Park with satellite imagery (1989–2003): implications for the management of wildlife habitat
- 6 Long-term studies reveal the conservation potential for integrating habitat restoration and animal nutrition
- 7 Long-term perspectives on forest conservation: lessons from research in Kibale National Park
- 8 Health and disease in the people, primates, and domestic animals of Kibale National Park: implications for conservation
- 9 The importance of training national and international scientists for conservation research
- 10 Community benefits from long-term research programs: a case study from Kibale National Park, Uganda
- 11 Potential interactions of research with the development and management of ecotourism
- 12 The human landscape around the Island Park: impacts and responses to Kibale National Park
- 13 Conservation and research in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Masindi District, Western Uganda
- 14 Long-term research and conservation in Gombe National Park, Tanzania
- 15 Long-term research and conservation in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania
- 16 The contribution of long-term research by the Taï Chimpanzee Project to conservation
- 17 The Green Corridor Project: long-term research and conservation in Bossou, Guinea
- 18 Long-term research and conservation of the Virunga mountain gorillas
- 19 Long-term research and conservation of great apes: a global future
- 20 Long-term research and conservation: the way forward
- Index
- References
8 - Health and disease in the people, primates, and domestic animals of Kibale National Park: implications for conservation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Why the link between long-term research and conservation is a case worth making
- 2 Links between research and Protected Area management in Uganda
- 3 The use of research: how science in Uganda's National Parks has been applied
- 4 Long-term research and conservation in Kibale National Park
- 5 Monitoring forest–savannah dynamics in Kibale National Park with satellite imagery (1989–2003): implications for the management of wildlife habitat
- 6 Long-term studies reveal the conservation potential for integrating habitat restoration and animal nutrition
- 7 Long-term perspectives on forest conservation: lessons from research in Kibale National Park
- 8 Health and disease in the people, primates, and domestic animals of Kibale National Park: implications for conservation
- 9 The importance of training national and international scientists for conservation research
- 10 Community benefits from long-term research programs: a case study from Kibale National Park, Uganda
- 11 Potential interactions of research with the development and management of ecotourism
- 12 The human landscape around the Island Park: impacts and responses to Kibale National Park
- 13 Conservation and research in the Budongo Forest Reserve, Masindi District, Western Uganda
- 14 Long-term research and conservation in Gombe National Park, Tanzania
- 15 Long-term research and conservation in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania
- 16 The contribution of long-term research by the Taï Chimpanzee Project to conservation
- 17 The Green Corridor Project: long-term research and conservation in Bossou, Guinea
- 18 Long-term research and conservation of the Virunga mountain gorillas
- 19 Long-term research and conservation of great apes: a global future
- 20 Long-term research and conservation: the way forward
- Index
- References
Summary
In the not-too-distant past, infectious disease was viewed as akin to fire, earthquake, and tornado in its propensity to impact wild primates. Outbreaks were considered inherently unpredictable, “sweeping through” primate populations, wreaking havoc, and then subsiding. Primates were generally thought to rebound, such that the overall effect was a “blip on the radar,” a transient reduction in population numbers.
The last approximately 10 years have demonstrated the “disease as natural disaster” paradigm to be woefully inaccurate. Infectious disease has emerged as a major threat to primate conservation. The case of Ebola virus and its devastating effects on chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) in Gabon and Congo is perhaps the most dramatic example, with some estimates of local population declines above 80% (Leroy et al., 2004; Bermejo et al., 2006). Other pathogens such as Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax), polio virus, and yellow fever virus have also caused epidemic mortality in apes and monkeys, to the extent that they are now seen as important drivers of primate population declines (Chapman et al., 2005; Leendertz et al., 2006; Nunn and Altizer, 2006).
Despite these dramatic examples, the majority of primate pathogens probably exert chronic, sublethal effects on primates in the wild (most parasitic protozoa, helminths, and arthropods probably fall into this category). Although researchers are paying increasing attention to such agents, most studies to date have been either “prevalence surveys” or comparisons of prevalence across locations or habitat types.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Science and Conservation in African ForestsThe Benefits of Longterm Research, pp. 75 - 87Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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