The Effects of Humans on the Primate Nutritional Landscape

Abstract

I (JMR) declared my desire to attend Cornell University and improve animal health to my ‘Careers’ class when I was 11 years old. I was probably interested in animal biology because our elderly family cat developed diabetes and needed insulin injections along with frequent visits to the veterinarian. Trying to understand the balance of insulin and sugar intake needed for my beloved cat’s health was fascinating to me and through this experience I realised that I wanted to improve the lives of animals in some way. I was born and raised in New York City, and I was drawn to wildlife through my visits to the Bronx Zoo. After spending a summer as an intern at the zoo studying captive gorillas as a junior undergraduate student at Cornell, I read a campus newspaper detailing graduate student John Berry’s research on potential medicinal plant use by gorillas in the wild. I was enthralled by the idea of animals using their own rainforest medicines. I later met John personally and he generously not only allowed me to assist him with his laboratory research, but obtained funds for me to travel with him to Bwindi forest in Uganda. While climbing the steep hills to track the mountain gorillas in Uganda, I was perplexed that we knew very little about gorilla nutrition – a critical puzzle piece in the ecology and behaviour of these endangered apes. How could we protect them if we didn’t even know how they obtained energy, protein and minerals! This summer trip in 1997 propelled me to return to Bwindi the following year to complete a nutritional analysis of the gorilla diet and to apply for graduate programmes in animal nutrition. As a Cornell graduate student I focused on the nutritional ecology and parasite dynamics of these gorillas and applied my findings to conservation by working closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the agency responsible for managing all wildlife in Uganda. My research focused mostly on the generation of baseline data for this highly endangered ape, and I integrated my results into park management plans in relation to movement, ecology and habitat use. For example, UWA now knows about the foods that are important to protect in the gorilla habitat, and some of the nutritional drivers for movement patterns. After finishing my PhD, I was a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr Colin Chapman, whose breadth of ecological and conservation experience offered new dimensions to my nutritional ecology research. While continuing work in Bwindi I also initiated research in Kibale National Park, focusing on diets and