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

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.