Primates in Peril

peat-swamp forests, S. c. siberu has densities as high as
65.5 individuals/sq km (Quinten et al. 2010).
The uncertainty of Indonesian government land-use
means that land function and thus, protection level
on the Mentawai Islands can change at any time with
little notice, putting the species at further risk. There is
only one large protected area for Simias: the 190,500-
ha Siberut National Park (SNP), a UNESCO Biosphere
Reserve that covers 47% of Siberut. Although SNP serves
as the main reserve for ~51,000 primates (Quinten et
al. 2015), hunting is significantly more prevalent there
than elsewhere, with ~4,800 primates being removed
per year (min. 6.4 % of the population) (Quinten et al.
2014). Drastic measures need to be taken to ensure that
the Peleonan Forest on Siberut and areas on the Pagai
Islands are truly protected.
Whittaker (2006) suggested the following conservation
actions for S. concolor: 1) increased protection for Siberut
National Park, which currently lacks enforcement; 2)
formal protection of the Peleonan forest in North Siberut,
which is home to unusually high primate populations
and is easily accessible; 3) protection of areas in the Pagai
Islands by cooperating with a logging corporation that
has practiced sustainable logging there since 1971; 4)
conservation education, especially regarding hunting;
and 5) the development of alternative economic models
for the local people to reduce the likelihood of selling
their land to logging companies.
References
Chasen, F. N. and C. B. Kloss. 1927. Spolia Mentawiensia-
Mammals. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of
London 53: 797–840.
Erb, W. M., C. Borries, N. S. Lestari and T. Ziegler.
2012a. Demography of simakobu (Simias concolor) and
the impact of human disturbance. American Journal of
Primatology 74: 580–590.
Fuentes, A. 2002. Monkeys, humans and politics
in the Mentawai Islands: no simple solutions in a
complex world. In: Primates Face to Face: Conservation
Implications of Human-Nonhuman Primate Interactions,
A. Fuentes and L. D. Wolfe (eds.), pp.187–207.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Hadi S, Ziegler T, Hodges JK. 2009a. Group structure
and physical characteristics of simakobu monkeys
(Simias concolor) on the Mentawai Island of Siberut,
Indonesia. Folia Primatologica 80: 74–82.
Miller, G. S. 1903. Seventy new Malayan mammals.
Smithsonionan Miscellaneous Collections 45: 1–73.
Mitchell, A. H. and R. L. Tilson. 1986. Restoring the
balance: traditional hunting and primate conservation
in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia. In: Primate Ecology
and Conservation, J. G. Else and P. C. Lee (eds.), pp.249–
260. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Paciulli, L. M. 2004. The Effects of Logging, Hunting,
and Vegetation on the Densities of the Pagai, Mentawai
Island Primates. Doctoral dissertation, State University
of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY.
Paciulli, L. M. and J. Viola. 2009. Population estimates
of Mentawai primates on the Pagai Islands, Mentawai,
West Sumatra, Indonesia. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology Suppl. 43. Abstract.
Paciulli, LM and Sabbi, K. (In review). How do Pagai,
Mentawai Island (Sumatra, Indonesia) primate
characteristics affect hunters’ prey selection? In: K.
Dore, E. Riley and A. Fuentes (eds.), Ethnoprimatology:
A Practical Guide to Research on the Human-Nonhuman
Primate Interface. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Quinten M, Waltert, M., Syamsuri, F., Hodges K. 2010.
Peat swamp forest supports high primate densities on
Siberut Island, Sumatra, Indonesia. Oryx: 147–151.
Quinten M, Stirling F, Schwarze S, Dinata Y, Hodges K.
2014. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of local people
on Siberut Island (West Sumatra, Indonesia) towards
primates. Journal of Threatened Taxa 6: 6389–6398.
Quinten M, F. Nopiansyah F and K. Hodges. 2015. First
estimates of primate density and abundance in Siberut
National Park, Mentawai Islands, Indonesia. Oryx 1:1-4.
Tenaza, R. 1987. The status of primates and their habitats
in the Pagai Islands, Indonesia. Primate Conservation 8:
104–110.
Waltert, M., C. Abegg, T. Ziegler, S. Hadi, D. Priata and
K. Hodges. 2008. Abundance and community structure
of Mentawai primates in the Peleonan Forest, North
Siberut, Indonesia. Oryx 42: 375–379.
51