Carolyn Ehardt

Associate Professor Emerita
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Texas - Austin, 1980

Although my early research focused on issues of social organization in captive groups of monkeys at the Field Station of the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center here in Georgia, I am now concentrating on the conservation of endangered primates and working at several field sites. My primary current site is the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania where there are a number of threatened primates. The Udzungwas are part of the Eastern Arc mountain "archipelago", an area of East Africa long of interest to biogeographers and ecologists due to the presence of montane relict forests characterized by high levels of endemism of both plants and animals. The Udzungwas are the last remaining place in East Africa with conginuous forest zonation from roughly 250m to 2600m elevation. There are a number of endemic primates in the Udzungwa forests, including the Sanje mangabey, the Uhehe red colobus, and two recently discovered species of dwarf galago. Currently I and my colleagues from the U.S. and Tanzania are concentrating on assessing the distribution and relative abundance of these endangered primates and a number of other monkeys found in this area. We are also training Tanzanian collaborators with the Udzungwa Mountains National Park and the Tanzanian Forestry Research Institute in methods of long-term monitoring of natural resources. As surprising as it may be, if we can successfully institute a program of long-term monitoring, it will be the first of its kind in Tanzania, and we are hopeful it will provide a model for development of similar programs in other protected areas of the country. The donor organizations providing funding for the project (the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation of Conservation International, and World Wide Fund for Nature - Tanzania) are especially keen to encourage development of such expertise within Tanzania, and it is an important goal of our long-term commitment to this biologically rich and vital area of the country.

Over the past several years I have also been conducting pilot work in Chiapas, Mexico, in collaboration with a number of colleagues affiliated with El Instituto de Historia Natural in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. This southern state of Mexico is within the most northern distribution of two species of howler monkeys and one species of spider monkey. There are a number of wonderful biosphere reserves and other protected areas in Chiapas which have recently been the focus of various biodiversity assessment surveys and studies of different faunal taxa, though not the primates. Our primary goal at this time is to determine the distribution and relative abundance of spider monkeys in the Sierra Madre which, in conjunction with data on social structure of these primates, their feeding ecology, and habitat evaluation, will enable us to assess for the first time the conservation status and viability of the populations in this area. Future work may then focus on the howler species, especially in terms of their differential socioecology and their ability to withstand environmental perturbations or take advantage of areas of intense anthropogenic change.

The research efforts described above are, at present, clearly couched within conservation and population demography. Where primates are possibly critically endangered, as is the case in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, such work is essential and must precede more in-depth ecological or social research. My longer term outlook, however, is toward research within the framework of community ecology and the relationship between ecological parameters and fission-fusion or "super-grouping" social structure in primates. Both mangabeys and spider monkeys are characterized by fluid forms of social structure, and the montane environments in which I am attempting to study these primates may provide some interesting and perhaps unique insights into the environmental facets which structure such grouping patterns in primates.

Recent publications:

• Polaszek, A., P. Grubb, C. Groves, C.L. Ehardt, and T.M. Butynski. In press. Type specimens, conservation, and the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature: A Response to Landry and Timm et al. , and a call for positive action. Science.
• Ehardt, C.L. In press. The Red-Capped Mangabey (Cercocebus torquatus). In: The Mammals of Africa, J. Kingdon, D. Happold, and T. Butynski, eds., Academic Press.
• Ehardt, C.L. and T.M. Butynski. In press. The Sanje Mangabey (Cercocebus sanjei). In: The Mammals of Africa, J. Kingdon, D. Happold, and T. Butynski, eds., Academic Press.
• Ehardt, C.L. and T.M. Butynski. In press. The Golden-bellied Mangabey (Cercocebus chrysogaster). In: The Mammals of Africa, J. Kingdon, D. Happold, and T.Butynski, eds., Academic Press.
• Jones, T., C.L. Ehardt, T.M. Butynski, T.R.B. Davenport, N.E. Mpunga,S.J. Machaga, D.W. De Luca. 2005. The highland mangabey Lophocebus kipunji: A new species of African monkey. Science 308: 1161-1164.
• Ehardt, C.L., T.P. Jones, and T.M. Butynski. 2005. The endangered Sanje mangabey (Cercocebus sanjei) of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania: Current protective status, ecology and strategies for improving conservation. International Journal of Primatology 26:557-583.
• Struhsaker, T.T., A.R. Marshall, K. Detwiler, K. Siex, C.L. Ehardt, D.D. Lisbjerg, and T.M. Butynski. 2004. Demographic variation among Udzungwa red colobus in relation to gross ecological and sociological parameters. International Journal of Primatology 25(3): 615-658.
• Butynski, T.M. and C.L. Ehardt. 2003.   Notes on ten restricted range birds in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania.   Scopus 23: 1813-28.
• Ehardt, C.L. 2001. The endemic primates of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. African Primates 4(1&2):15-26.
• Ehardt, Carolyn L., T.T. Struhsaker, and T.M. Butynski. 1999. Conservation of the Endemic Primates of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania: Surveys, Habitat Assessment, and Long-Term Monitoring. Final Report to Conservation International and World Wide Fund for Nature.
• Butynski, T.M., C.L. Ehardt, and T.T. Struhsaker. 1998. Notes on the dwarf galagos (Galagoides udzungwensis and Galagoides orinus) in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania.   Primate Conservation 18:66-72.