Page 28 - aruba-today-20171007

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 7 OctOber 2017

Hurricane mauled PR’s renowned Monkey Island research center

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN at least some of their DNA pier, funded by tens of
Associated Press analyzed. thousands of dollars raised
CAYO SANTIAGO, Puerto Researchers from Yale, the so far in university depart-
Rico (AP) — As thousands University of Pennsylvania, ments and online.
of troops and government New York University and Complicating the effort,
workers struggle to restore others have been spend- the monkeys all carry her-
normal life to Puerto Rico, ing much of the year on pes B, a version of the vi-
a small group of scien- the island studying every- rus that is harmless to ma-
tists is racing to save more thing from the monkeys’ caques but can be fatal
than 1,000 monkeys whose eye movements to the in humans. Anyone who
brains may contain clues genes and behavior of so- comes into contact with
to mysteries of the human cially aberrant individuals monkey saliva or urine must
mind. that may provide insight undergo rigorous decon-
One of the first places Hur- into the causes of autism. tamination and treatment
ricane Maria hit in the U.S. “It’s completely unprec- with antiretroviral drugs.
territory Sept. 20 was Cayo In this Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017 photo, monkeys move about on edented in its breadth and Humans also pose risks for
Santiago, known as Mon- Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island, in Puerto Rico. size,” said James Higham, the monkeys. Because the
key Island, a 40-acre out- Associated Press a professor of biological hurricane destroyed the
cropping off the east coast Ruiz Lambides, the director as the father of American anthropology at NYU who island’s chemical toilet, re-
that is one of the world’s of the Cayo Santiago facil- primate science brought a is studying the monkeys’ searchers and workers can
most important sites for re- ity. “Does FEMA cover this? population of Indian rhesus behavior, cognition and stay only until they need a
search into how primates Does the university’s insur- macaques to the United communication. bathroom break: Human
think, socialize and evolve. ance cover this? I don’t States. Now the university staff and waste could start an epi-
The storm destroyed virtual- know.” Clarence Ray Carpenter local employees who keep demic that could wipe out
ly everything on the island, Incredibly, as far as the sci- wanted a place with the Monkey Island running are the monkeys.
stripping it of vegetation, entists can tell so far, the perfect mix of isolation frantically ferrying bags of While the rescue effort is
wrecking the monkeys’ monkeys survived the di- and free range, where the chow in a tiny skiff, feeding heroic, “it’s not sustain-
metal drinking troughs and rect hit from the hurricane, monkeys could be stud- the macaques a survival able,” said Higham, who
crushing the piers that Uni- perhaps by seeking high ied living much as they do diet and trying to reassem- is bringing in a container
versity of Puerto Rico work- ground and clustering to- in nature without the dif- ble the rainwater collec- full of supplies, possibly on
ers use to bring in bags of gether at the base of trees. ficulties of tracking them tors and drinking troughs a ship that would anchor
monkey chow — brown No bodies have been through the wild. that keep the animals alive off the island. “They’re do-
pellets of processed food found and a census is not Since then the 400 or so in the tropical sun. ing the best they can do
that complete the pri- detecting large numbers macaques have repro- Mainland scientists are under very difficult condi-
mates’ natural vegetation of missing macaques. duced and expanded bringing in equipment from tions, but it needs help and
diet. The island’s history as a their numbers, becoming chain saws to a portable attention.”q
“All of our tools were de- research center dates to the world’s most studied
stroyed,” said Angelina 1938, when the man known free-ranging primate pop-
ulation and something of a
living library.
Every animal born on the
island is tattooed for easy
identification, and the skel-
eton of every one that has
died over nine generations
has been saved for future
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