Beneath the moon Under the Sun: Lemurs on the edge

Aim

Lemurs live life on the edge. We want to throw them a lifeline by using new technology to understand their movement, cognition and evolution

Lemurs are living life on the edge: the edge of the forest, the edge of Africa, and the edge of extinction. 

Forest fragmentation and degradation has a massive impact on animals that live in trees due to changes in canopy connectivity. Species already challenged by natural fluctuations in food availability are being pushed to forest edges. In Madagascar, 50% of the original forest cover has been destroyed by subsistence farming, selective logging, and mining. Therefore, many species, including lemurs, are living life more on the edge of the forest than ever before.

copyright SEED Madagascar

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and lies off the eastern coast of Africa. Animals that made the journey from mainland Africa millions of years ago have evolved differently and are only found on this island. Any changes to the ecosystem threaten these endemic species. The arrival of man to Madagascar triggered the extinction of many of its largest mammals and raptors, including many giant lemurs. 

Climate change has made an already unpredictable island environment even more challenging. Over the last four years, Madagascar has suffered an extended drought and an increasingly unpredictable climate. These changing habitats are harder and harder for Madagascar’s species to survive. 94% of all lemur species are in danger of extinction. The eight largest species of lemur have already become extinct since humans colonized the island and are only known from fossil remains. With increased human disturbance and hunting by humans, surviving lemur species are rapidly becoming close to the edge of extinction. 

The project

Through this project, we will look at how collared brown lemurs move through the forest over a 24-h period. They are one of the few species of primates to be cathemeral (active in both the daytime and at night-time). 

Advance understanding of primate cognition

Scientists studying different species have, in the past, tended to assume a hierarchy in their intelligence, with humans at the top, and other primates being considered to have higher levels of cognitive ability the closer they are in relation to us. One of the ways in which cognition has been measured is through the way a species navigates to find food, rest sites, and to communicate with other animals. Animal navigation can be shown through its cognitive map, which encodes distances and directions to enable an animal to recall travel routes, orientate to landmarks, monitor food and calculate the optimum route from point A to point B. Think of each species having its own version of google maps; instead of restaurants and petrol stations they would encode the location of fruiting trees and sources of water; in place of hotels would be good nesting trees; instead of ‘find a friend’ function is a latrine site or scent marked tree. Routes that other animals have found to be the quickest, safest, or requiring the least energy, would be encoded into their cognitive map and updated regularly. The invention of cheap GPS technology has enabled scientists to study the routes animals take more closely as they no longer have to follow them on foot but can pick up their movements with a radio receiver. This work has shown that animals use two distinct types of maps. 

Route-based maps show habitual, frequently used paths. Using this type of map is like taking the motorway; the number of decisions an individual needs to make is reduced and it will be easier to follow.  Therefore, route-based maps have been associated with lower levels of cognitive ability. Just like motorways however, the route is less flexible. If it becomes blocked by a fallen tree or newly built road or you are chased off the route by a predator or rival group, you may not know how to get back onto it. As it is likely to be used by more individuals it may not be the best way to be the first to get to a tree that fruits once every two years. 

Coordinate-based maps use x/y coordinates to give an aerial overview of the landscape. This would be equivalent to getting out an OS map and plotting your own route to your desired location; increased flexibility but demanding more cognitive ability and energy.

By building up a detailed picture of lemur movements through the forest we will be able to better understand what sorts of maps they are using. In my MSc thesis, I showed that bamboo lemurs could use both sorts of maps and chose the appropriate one depending on various ecological and social factors. The ability of a small primate to use navigation usually associated with larger primates challenged the way scientists had thought about cognition. This project will build on my previous study, while additionally trying to understand how movement differs during the night and day.

Advancing lemur conservation 

• Increasing our understanding of how lemurs move about and use their habitat and how they interact with the forest structure. Lemurs are primarily arboreal, jumping from branch to branch is their preferred mode of movement through their forest home. When the connectivity of the forest is fragmented by the removal of trees, the building of roads, or the advance of human activity into the forest, their routes to important places are lost, impacting their ability to live in their forest home. Fragmentation of the forest also changes the level of light at new forest edges and at different levels of the canopy. We want to understand how lemurs’ movements react to changes in light levels in different parts of the canopy, forest, throughout the day (from dawn to dusk), and at night (due to the transition of the moon through the sky and waxing and waning of the moon through the lunar month).
• Increasing our understanding of the impact of fluctuations in food availability on lemurs. Madagascar’s unpredictable island environment has resulted in trees that show irregular fruit production windows within a year, but also fruit production that can occur once every 2-3 years. As the climate changes, this unpredictability is only likely to increase. If we are to help lemurs cope with these changes, we need to know how they deal with the unpredictability that already exists.

Studying lemurs in the wild: an experiment in time travel 

The primate family tree has many branches. The first division occurred when the strepsirrhine primates split from the haplorhines. Lemurs are the only strepsirrhine primates to have evolved group living and behavioural strategies that emphasise within group competition; this behaviour has been linked to adaptation to an ecologically unpredictable environment.

Studies on lemurs suggest social complexity could have played a part in gaining the social skills that have also been important in human evolution. Although we cannot travel back through time to understand how social skills and flexibility in activity phases helped our ancestors survive while adjusting to higher latitudes and different habitats, we plan to study one of the few primate species that are known to adopt a similar strategy in the wild, lemurs! As humans move into a period of increasing climate unpredictability, understanding the behaviours and traits that have helped our oldest living relative on the primate family tree to survive, may give us an understanding of the importance of human flexibility.

What will we actually do in Madagascar?

I will follow three groups of lemurs through the forest in Sainte Luce, the most intact littoral forest in Madagascar.  Littoral forest is a unique, closed forest ecosystem occurring close to the ocean and in sandy soils. It once formed a continuous 1,600km band along the east coast of Madagascar but now represents just 2.4% of Madagascar’s remaining forest, making it one of the most threatened Malagasy ecosystems. 

copyright SEED Madagascar

I will be hosted by SEED (Sustainable Environment, Education and Development) Madagascar, an NGO working to build meaningful, sustainable change in southeast Madagascar. By working with Malagasy guides and a Malagasy research assistant, and funding a Malagasy masters student to develop their own project alongside my own, I will bring much needed funds and training into the local community at St Luce and build the capacity of the Malagasy scientific community. As a team, we will look at the behaviours of these lemurs, their food consumption, and their movement, which will allow me to create a detailed picture of how they move through this fragmented forest. We will use novel technologies and analyses to understand how lemurs’ movements and activity levels are changing, and the impact of variation in forest structure, food availability and forest condition. I have so far raised the funds to buy 6 radio-collars which will send the data on the movement of six individuals to an antenna. I am crowdfunding to upgrade these collars by adding two further devices: 

An accelerometer. In the same way that people use devices in cars to track our driving and reduce our insurance payments, we will use an accelerometer to store data on the activity patterns of our collared lemurs creating fine-grained picture of each lemur’s movements. This data alongside the observations of lemur behaviours by the team on the forest floor will allow me to create a real-time representation of how these lemurs move through their habitat and create a map showing whether these species use route-based maps or coordinate-based maps or a combination of both. 

A light-meter will be used to attempt to understand the specific light levels allowing an accurate measure of light, therefore helping us to understand at what light levels specific activity occurs. The use of this device will mean I could possibly gather more accurate data on light levels and won’t be reliant on lunar phases as a proxy of light levels.

I will also use a drone to monitor the vegetation condition and the connectivity of the forest canopy, resulting in a representation of the forest structure and the connectivity there is within the forest. This will allow for a detailed understanding of the forest which will provide another element of information about how the lemurs move through this fragmented forest. This will provide evidence for a re-evaluation of environmental factors previously undetected and focus conservation efforts on forms of ecological change that are most disruptive to these lemurs. 

Both the accelerometer and light-meter will increase the reliability of the project as well as showing precisely how the lemurs use their environment aiding the development of targeted conservation efforts to protect the remaining habitat and the species residing in them and the ecosystem services they provide. 

 copyright SEED Madagascar

Who am I?

My name is Bethany Watkins, and I am the project leader. I am a primatologist and a PhD student at Oxford Brookes University. I have a first-class BSc in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science which led to research in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, Peru, where I worked for the CREES Foundation, leading volunteers in projects and carrying out my own research. 

During my undergraduate degree, I travelled to Tsinjoarivo, eastern Madagascar, working alongside Sadabe an NGO promoting research, conservation, and sustainable development. As a group, we carried out research for two weeks on Tenrecs, diademed sifaka (Propithecus diadema), habitat use of flying insectivores, ecosystem processes, and value of rivers in forests.

I then went on to do an MSc in Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes University.  My MSc project looked at how Southern bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur meridionalis) move through a forest fragment of Mandena, in southeast Madagascar. My dissertation was awarded the Simon Bearder Award for the highest grade among my cohort. This has resulted in a preliminary paper being published in the Oxford Brookes Primate Conservation research journal CANOPY 21(2)  and a paper currently in review in Animal Behaviour, with the title Routes matter: the effect of seasonality on bamboo lemurs’ navigational strategies: Bethany Watkins, Miguel de Guinea, Stephanie A. Poindexter, Jörg U. Ganzhorn, Giuseppe Donati, Timothy M. Eppley. 

Why am I crowdfunding?

Despite my qualifications and experience, there is not much money in conservation, especially with the recent COVID-19 pandemic which has threatened the success of research and conservation projects globally. The pandemic has decreased the amount of funding available for projects like mine to go ahead. I am self-funding my studies in Oxford and my travel and living costs for my fieldwork. I have, however, been awarded an important grant by Re:Wild to fund other costs that will allow me to start my fieldwork in January. 

Impact for Madagascar 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Madagascar has suffered, like many other countries globally. The pandemic has pushed 1.38 million people into extreme poverty due to job losses in manufacturing and service sectors. While this project won’t reverse the situation within the country, it will be able to bring some benefit to the local community.  In this very difficult period, many funding bodies are not able to fund projects, with travel being limited in many countries, creating this crowdfunding platform will allow people to get involved with a project that might not otherwise go ahead. This platform will allow more money to go into the economy of Madagascar as I will be funding my own subsistence while I am carrying out the research, the funds will aid the local economy through my stay at the research station. It will build the scientific capacity of the community through my hiring and training of local research assistants. 

Where will the funding go? 

The money raised from this Crowdfunder will 

• Fund the purchase of 6 accelerometers and light meters and GPS collars, upgrading our radio collars to provide more fine-grained information of the movement strategies being used by the lemurs. These technologies have rarely been used with primates; specifically, the creation of their route networks and use of light meters have not been used in combination together. This is therefore a very novel research project that will advance conservation solutions. 
• Provide a wage, food and accommodation for a year for a Malagasy researcher to be hired as my assistant. As I will to conducting research across a 24-h period I will need help to observe the lemurs both in the day and at night. 

How much do I need to raise? 

I need to raise £6,000. As I will be self-funding my flights, accommodation and food while out in Madagascar, 100% of the funds raised will go directly to field research. 

• 1 Research assistant (Subsistence and stipend for a year): £2,285 
• 6 x £615 collar upgrades: £3,690 

What if I don’t get more money? 

I have already secured money from Re:Wild, allowing myself to carry out a very basic version of my research project. 

What happens if COVID-19 means I can’t go? 

If I cannot travel to Madagascar, the research will still go forward with myself staying in England to organise and direct the project from the UK. I will hire the same Malagasy researcher to carry out the research within Madagascar. Therefore, the money raised here will still be used to support the local people and to buy the equipment that will still be necessary. SEED Madagascar is hoping to welcome back volunteers and researchers towards the end of 2021. 

Who else is involved in the project? 

Dr Giuseppe Donati, PhD, MSc, BSc 

Giuseppe is a Reader in Primatology and Biological Anthropology in the School of Social Science at Oxford Brookes University. With over two decades of experience researching lemurs’ behaviour and ecology in Southern Madagascar. Initially his research focussed on the unique evolutionary traits of the lemur radiation, and especially their capacity to be active both during the day and at night. Through this work he contributed to the understanding of the cost-benefit involved in the transition from the nocturnal to the diurnal lifestyle during the evolution of primates. His own PhD studied the same collared brown lemurs at Sainte Luce. Giuseppe’s most recent research addresses a priority area in conservation, investigating how primates tolerate habitat change, resulting in him being recognised as one of the leading experts in his field.

Dr Magdalena Svensson, PhD, MSc, BSc

Magdalena is a lecturer and laboratory technician for the MSc Primate Conservation, and an active research member of the Nocturnal Primate Research Group and the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group both based at Oxford Brookes University. Her research focuses on nocturnal primates of Africa and the Neotropics. 

Dr Miguel de Guinea, PhD, MSc, BSc

Miguel is a post-doctoral student working at the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Miguel’s research has a strong focus on movement ecology and cognition, with interest in the evolution of navigation strategies, landscape dynamics and spatial analysis applied to conservation. Publishing papers of the movement ecology of black howler monkeys in Palenque National Park, Mexico. Miguel and I have worked closely during my MSc to write a paper on the movement of bamboo lemurs, and will continue our collaboration to create specific maps of the collared brown lemurs at St Luce. 

SEED Madagascar

I will be carrying out my field research at SEED Madagascar within their field station in Sainte Luce. SEEDs vision is for thriving communities and ecosystems across Madagascar, focussing on building meaningful sustainable change in southeast Madagascar, in one of the poorest regions of the poorest countries in the world. Their environmental project work to protect threatened areas and species in the Anosy region. Working alongside local communities to help understand more about the local environment and conservation priorities.

How can you follow the project? 

All backers will be added to a newsletter mailing list to receive updates on our project progress, you can also follow along on my Instagram page and Twitter page, or search for my handle @Wildlifebethany

Rewards

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This project successfully funded on 23rd September 2021