Altered states: Will forest-agriculture mosaic landscapes allow the long-term survival of a forest-specialist primate?

管理野生动物在生态环境改造景观是一个持续的挑战，保护主义者，即使在直接的人与野生动物的冲突并不太明显。人类将土地转变为农业、道路建设和旅游业等活动，都可能极大地影响动物物种利用同一景观的方式，以及它们的出现地点和数量。有些物种受到的负面影响尤其严重，包括体型较大的动物，繁殖缓慢的哺乳动物，如灵长类动物和那些对原始森林有强烈偏好的动物。桑给巴尔红疣猴（ZRC）是研究这些问题的一个理想的研究物种，因为它可能是非常脆弱的，但似乎能够坚持在马赛克，密集占领的景观以外的Jozani-Chwaka湾国家公园，它是受保护的。然而，2013年至2015年的一次总人口普查发现，生活在公园以外的ZRC群体比保护区内的群体规模更小，繁殖速度更慢，他们的家园范围可能更容易受到人类的影响。该项目将利用卫星图像和实地数据收集，确定ZRC栖息地森林损失的速率和模式，并将其与基于2013-15年人口普查的预测相关联，以探索森林损失和破碎化的不同模式如何影响ZRC群体。它还将试验“行为估值”技术，利用对ZRC群体活动的详细观察，来评估其范围内每个不同部分对他们的价值。

Managing wildlife in anthropogenically-modified landscapes is a persistent challenge for conservationists, even where direct human-wildlife conflict is not too pronounced. Human conversion of land for agriculture, road-building and tourism, among other activities, can all dramatically affect the way an animal species can make use of that same landscape and where and in what numbers it will be found. Some species are particularly negatively affected, including large-bodied, slow-reproducing mammals like primates and those with strong preferences for primary forest.The Zanzibar red colobus (ZRC) is an ideal study species for a project looking at these issues, because it is potentially highly vulnerable but seems able to persist in mosaic, intensively occupied landscapes beyond Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park where it is protected. A total census in 2013-15, however, found that ZRC groups living beyond the park were smaller and reproducing less quickly than those in protected areas, and their home ranges may be more subject to human impact. This project will characterise rates and patterns of forest loss in ZRC habitats, using satellite imagery and field data collection,and relate these to predictions based on the 2013-15 census to explore how different patterns of forest loss and fragmentation are affecting ZRC groups. It will also trial 'behavioural valuation' techniques, using detailed observations of the ZRC groups' activities to characterise the value each different part of their range holds for them.