Juan Morales - US grants

Southeast Asia harbors the greatest diversity of higher primates (monkeys and apes) in the old world. Despite this diversity, and a long history of its study, there is little agreement on the number of species and genera that exist and how they are related to one another. The need to establish a basic consensus on these issues is extremely important to the study of our own evolution and vital to the conservation management of these unique Asian primates. The primary goals of this project are to: (1) use a comprehensive set of molecular data to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among Asia's macaque monkeys, leaf monkeys, and gibbon apes; (2) reconstruct the evolutionary histories of these three groups of higher primates by simultaneously considering their respective evolutionary relationships, their current geographical distributions, and what we know of the geological processes, climate and ecology of the regions in which this great diversification took place at the time it was occurring; and (3) define the appropriate taxonomic units and geographical regions for the conservation of the species that each group contains. The successful completion of this project will add significantly to our understanding of mammalian evolution and to the conservation of primate biodiversity.

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Morales and Ruedas

Observations and mapping endeavors in the Malay Archipelago dating back to the time of Alfred Russel Wallace formed the beginnings of the modern biological discipline of biogeography: the study of the distributions of animals and plants, and of the causes of those distributions. However, perhaps in part because of the overwhelming influence of Wallace, no further comprehensive biological studies have since been undertaken in the Malay Archipelago, the birthplace of biogeography. A few studies have examined, in isolation, distinct faunal elements (e.g., insects, birds, bats) of certain of the islands of the archipelago.
We have, in contrast, begun to integrate these disparate studies and initiate studies of our own across the entire Malay Archipelago, from Mainland Asia to New Guinea and Australia. These integrative studies have as a goal to test the general biogeographic hypotheses founded on ecological studies of the area. Our work focuses on DNA-sequence derived studies of the evolutionary relationships within a single group of animals: the rodents. In particular, we will concentrate on one family of rodents, the Muridae, which is the most speciose: over 65% of all rodent species (1326/2021) are murids. We chose these rodents because these tend to be widespread and ubiquitous throughout the region, thus we are almost invariably assured of study organisms. We will use the DNA-sequence data to determine what the major patterns of historical biogeography are in the area.
The specific objectives of the project are to derive DNA-sequence based phylogenies of the area's murid rodents; these phylogenies will be used to test biogeographic hypotheses that have been proposed for the origin of the Australian, Papuan, and Sulawesian rodent radiations. Finally, the data will be used to generate a more comprehensive and robust vision of the relationships among the region's rodents. We will concentrate on Sulawesi as a key missing element in our current data set. We have been studying the region's rodents for some years and have amassed specimens for analysis from islands on the continental margin as well as New Guinea and Australia; however, Sulawesi is of critical importance to regional biogeographic analyses (therefore to biogeography as a whole), as ecologically derived faunal studies are unable to localize the island within either of the two broad regions elucidated by Wallace. Sulawesi's murid rodent fauna, one of the area's and the world's richest, is constituted by at least 41 species, of which 36 are endemic. Of the endemics, ample representation is found of the major murid groups of the area, but most importantly, a group known as the "Old Endemics." Rodents in this group tend to be rare and isolated and as such constitute key elements in evolutionary and biogeographic analyses. Discovering these patterns will enable us to begin to understand how the faunal colonization of the area was undertaken, as well as what mechanisms are responsible for one of the richest regional mammalian biotas in the world.

The distribution of pathogens and their impact on the population dynamics of wildlife are areas of increasing interest in the ecological and conservation communities. Mammalian carnivores may be especially vulnerable to the effects of disease because they are rare, have complex social interactions, and are closely related to two domestic species, dogs and cats, which are subsidized by humans and thus live at high densities. We know that disease outbreaks in carnivore populations have sometimes resulted in measurable population declines and extinctions, but we don't know how commonly this occurs and how much effort should be exerted to prevent it. In many regions, we cannot assess the risk of disease spillover, as data on baseline levels of disease exposure do not exist. In an attempt to address these issues, this study will investigate the disease ecology of carnivores in the Chaco, a tropical dry forest in South America.

Despite the arid climate, the Chaco of Bolivia has a surprising diversity of carnivores. It is home to numerous threatened and endangered felids, including jaguars, ocelots, margays, and Geoffroy's cats. Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park, a large protected area in Bolivia, was established to safeguard these species, as well as other fauna such as the endemic Chacoan (or giant) peccary. The Park is contiguous with an indigenous territory that is titled to the Izoceno people. The Izocenos use this area extensively for hunting and resource extraction, and nearly all hunting involves dogs. This means that hunting dogs are entering the forest along the border of the park on a daily basis. Our goals with this project are to identify which diseases are present in the hunting dog population, quantify the opportunities that exist for contact between dogs and wild carnivores, and determine if wild carnivores living in the buffer zone surrounding the park are more likely to have been exposed to disease than those living inside the park.

Working with Bolivian biologists and indigenous parabiologists, we are sampling domestic dogs and wild carnivores in the Izoceno communities, in the buffer zone, and inside the park. In addition, we are conducting interviews with the Izocenos to learn more about hunting dog demographics and ecology. We want to ascertain how often dogs enter the forest, where they go, and how long they stay there. We are also trying to get basic information about how long dogs live, how they die, and the turnover of the population. Preliminary data show that these dogs have a short lifespan, and a very high neonatal mortality rate. We are also collecting information about diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Our hope is that this project will ultimately allow us to make recommendations that will improve the health of the hunting dogs, improve the health of the humans, and protect the health of the wildlife.

The critically endangered Kloss's gibbon (Hylobates klossii) is found only on Indonesia's Mentawai Islands, a small chain of four islands located off the west coast of Sumatra. The Mentawai Islands have been long isolated from the rest of the region, and therefore little is known about the relationships of this little-studied ape to other gibbon species in neighboring areas.

In addition, some researchers have suggested that the other three Mentawai primate species have two distinct subspecies with different coloration and behavior: one on the northernmost island of Siberut, the other on the three southern islands. No distinction has been proposed for populations of Kloss's gibbons, since all Kloss's gibbons have completely black fur, exhibiting no obvious variation, and no behavioral studies have been conducted outside of Siberut. However, the Kloss's gibbon shares a biogeographic history with the other three species, strongly suggesting that the separation between Siberut and the southern islands affecting differentiation in the monkeys should also affect the gibbons. Genetic patterns of intraspecific variation within H. klossii have never been studied.

Fecal samples from wild gibbon groups will be non-invasively collected from sites on all four Mentawai Islands. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, this project will address the following research questions:

1)How is the Kloss's gibbon related to other members of the genus Hylobates?
2)What is the relationship between geography and genetic population structure within and between the Mentawai Islands?
3)What are the implications of these data for conservation planning in the Mentawai Islands?

Broader Impacts:

Currently, the only legally protected area in the Mentawais is Siberut National Park. Data from this project may be used to support increased protection of the park, and, if multiple genetically distinct groups or "conservation units" are found, to encourage the gazetting of new protected areas. All four Mentawai primates are threatened or endangered, and any conservation action for the Kloss's gibbon, the flagship species, will also benefit these primates. The investigators will work closely with local Mentawai people, as well as Indonesian students and academics, increasing local conservation education and international scientific collaboration.