Saving the lion-tailed macaque. Review of the lion-tailed macaque: Status and conservation (monographs in primatology, volume 7), edited by Paul G. Heltne. New York, Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1985, 422 pp, $58
✍ Scribed by Carolyn M. Crockett
- Book ID
- 101453613
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1986
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 239 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0275-2565
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Baltimore, 1982
. Lion-tailed macaque experts and aficionados from around the world gather with a single purpose: to share information and put their heads together to curb the downward spiral of one of Earth's most endangered primates. Unlike the lowly snail-darter, the lion-tailed macaque and its distant cousin, the golden lion tamarin, are attractive, vivacious creatures that arouse a great deal of public sentiment. Both of these monkeys are good candidates for zoo exhibition with the purpose of educating the public about the plight of endangered species. Furthermore, both species may owe their eventual long-term survival to captive propagation efforts by zoos. Some zoo-bred golden lion tamarins have already been reintroduced into their shrinking Brazilian habitat. It is far too soon to return any liontails to the forests of India, but it is not too early to plan for such an eventuality.
This volume should have begun with an introductory chapter by the editor, explaining the background and purpose of the conference as well as the organization and general content of the chapters to come. Instead, we find a meager two-page preface that does not even give the date of the conference. The reader should be informed from the outset that the last chapters include three "working papers" (manuscripts presenting proposed plans of action on population management, optimizing reproductive potential, and wildlife management) followed by the recommendations of the committees that discussed these papers in light of other material presented at the conference. A simple technique of organizing the book and table of contents into subsections would have been a great improvement. Had the editor done this, he might have found, as I did, that the chapters should have been presented in a somewhat different order.
The book's chapters vary in style, sophistication of approach, and relevance to the question of species preservation. Several are essentially texts of lectures presented at the symposium, while others are written as research reports. This makes