January 2012
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Memorandum of Understanding finally signed
The official Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Nature Conservation
North Sulawesi (BKSDA Sulut) has finally been signed. We hope for fruitful future collaboration.
Antje Engelhardt (DPZ), Muhammad Agil (IPB) and Sudiyono (BKSDA Sulut) signing the MoU
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January 2012
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Seminar for tourist guides
In a seminar, members of the Macaca Nigra Project informed the guides that lead tourists into the nature reserve about crested macaque biology and behaviour. Although the guides are residents of the nearby village Batu Putih their knowledge about the monkeys is moderate and mixed with traditional beliefs.
In the seminar, they learned about the morphology, ecology, reproductive biology and behaviour of Crested macaques and how the species can be better protected. In addition, they were taught how to observe the monkeys without disturbing them too much and how to prevent dangerous confrontations between tourists and monkeys.
Altogether, 25 guides joined the seminar, who can now forward their knowledge to the tourists coming to Tangkoko.
Seminar in front of the camp
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August 2011
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Elo-rating helps conservation of Macaca nigra
Assessments of dominance hierarchies play an important role in studies of
behavioural ecology. Researchers are however often faced with dynamics within
the hierachies that impede application of current methods. We thus aim
at promoting Elo-rating, a method that is able to circumvent many of the
drawbacks common to methods based on dominance interaction matrices. Using
data collected on wild crested macaques and the Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques,
we demonstrate and visualize several of its advantages and show that while
Elo-rating is less demanding on the raw data, it produces stable rankings comparable
to those of common methods. In addition, we propose an index to quantify the degree
of stability inherent in a dominance hierarchy. By providing all the necessary tools
to apply Elo-rating in the R-software environment, we hope that Elo-rating gets the
wide use that its advantages warrant.
Neumann, C., Duboscq, J., Dubuc, C., Ginting, A., Irwan, A. M., Agil,
M., Widdig, A. & Engelhardt, A. Assessing dominance hierarchies:
validation and advantages of progressive evaluation with Elo-rating
Animal Behaviour. doi:10.1016/ j.anbehav. 2011.07.016.
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August 2011
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Fires in the reserve
Recently, there was another outbreak of fires in three spots
located between the project camp and the village Batu Putih burning down
an area of more than 13 ha. All fires went out only after a long hard rain three
days after the outbreak.
Regularly during the dry season, there are fire outbreaks in
Tangkoko, which we suspect are lit by villagers to get fresh grass and sprouts
for their cattle. The fires normally start in degraded scrub areas but the surrounding
secondary forest patches are always also badly affected. As a result, the scrub
areas are getting bigger and bigger, and all hopes for secondary forest patches
to grow into primary forests again are destroyed with every new fire. It seems
difficult for the rangers to stop the cattle farming in the reserve, but obviously action needs to be taken urgently.
Burned area of two fires , the third one is not on the map
MNP team member Meldy clearing a "Sekat Bakar", a fire break.
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March 2011
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Recent earthquake in Japan and the following Tsunami didn't
effect northern Sulawesi
Our sympathy goes to our Japanese colleagues and friends and the whole Japanese population affected.
As an aftermath of the tsunami devastating major areas of the Japanese
east-coast, on March 11 at 6 UTC a small wave passed a buoy from NDBC This buoy is located 1500 km northeast from North Sulawesi in the Pacific Ocean
and is the nearest to Tangkoko from Japan.
Related links:
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January 2011
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Anouncement: PhD position in behavioural endocrinology vacant
We are seeking a PhD-student for a project on the effect of male migration on the
behaviour and physiological stress response of group members in crested macaques
(Macaca nigra). The study will be conducted as part of the Macaca Nigra Project
(www.macaca-nigra.org) in the Tangkoko Nature Reserve, Indonesia and will be carried
out in close collaboration with our Indonesian counterparts. Candidates will enrol in the
graduate programme of the University of Göttingen. Field work will comprise collection of
behavioural data, plus faecal and saliva samples for hormone analysis. Laboratory hormone
and data analysis will be carried out in Goettingen.
Full description and contact [pdf]
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