By Stephanie Edwards
Yerkes National Primate Research Center has announced plans to conduct biomedical research on an endangered species of monkey—the sooty mangabey—according to the U.S. Federal Register.
Research on endangered species is prohibited by the U.S. Endangered Species Act unless there is firm evidence that the research will benefit the species in the wild. However, Yerkes has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to renew and amend its permit in order to lethally “take” the endangered sooty mangabey under the act and conduct simian immunodeficiency virus research on the mangabeys currently housed at its primate center.
Yerkes, which is part of Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., began housing a colony of mangabeys before the monkeys were listed as endangered; the colony now consists of approximately 229 individuals. Since the sooty mangabeys were classified as endangered, the research center has been prohibited from conducting invasive research on them. If the Fish and Wildlife Service approves the amended permit, Yerkes would be allowed to use the monkeys for invasive research, as well as euthanize old and surplus animals, as identified by the center.
Yerkes has proposed donating money to conservation programs for wild mangabeys in exchange for permission to lethally "take" the endangered species, according to an April, 2006 Associated Press article. The center began last year with a donation of $30,000 to research and conservation of sooty mangabeys in the Tai National Park Reserve in Ivory Coast, West Africa. This quid pro quo is fundamentally inconsistent with the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, and it would set a poor precedent for future exploitation of endangered species.
Sooty mangabeys are native to Africa, ranging from Sierra Leone to Ghana. They are social monkeys with a well-developed communication system. "Sooties" live in primary and secondary forests and in flooded, dry, swamp, mangrove, and gallery forests. They eat mostly fruits nuts, and seeds and have extremely powerful jaws that allow them to crack hard nuts that other monkeys cannot open. Mangabeys are natural carriers of simian immunodeficiency virus, but they do not get sick from the disease—a situation that Yerkes has cited as a reason to conduct the research on these animals.
The HSUS submitted comments with the Fish and Wildlife Service opposing the proposed permit. A decision is pending, and there is potential for the comment period to be re-opened.
