2. Sulawesi Tarsiers:
Revealing the Most Complex Biogeographical Region
with the Most Unusual Primate
Dr. Myron Shekelle
tarsier.org
Portland State University
November 19, 2009
4. A brief introduction . . .
•1994: Began a phylogeographic
study of tarsiers
1994-2008: 10+ years in SE Asia, living, researching, and
working as a primatologist.
5. A brief introduction . . .
travelled Sulawesi for 14
years, researching tarsiers
1994
1995
1996
1997
2000
2001
2004
2005
= 100 km
about 2000 km from end to
end
6. Some conclusions from my research. . .
Eastern tarsiers are a cluster of 16+ related species within a
population formerly classified as a single subspecies!
• Old fashioned science (taxonomy, biogeography)
• New technology (genetics, bioacoustics)
• Greatly improved understanding of the true scope of biodiversity
Biodiversity on Sulawesi
underestimated by an
order of magnitude?!?
Shekelle et al. (2008)
Stephen
tumpara
Nash
7. Take Home Message:
Old science
+
new technology
=
greatly improved
conservation priority setting
9. Short video of research on Siau Island
“Myths, Monsters, and Hobbits”
by
Union Productions
Filmed March, 2005. Original air date in Britain
and Europe on Sky TV, June 20, 2005.
10.
11. Siau Island Tarsier, Tarsius tumpara.
New Species, Critically Endangered
“Top 25 Most Endangered Primates”
2006-2008, 2008-2010, 2010-2012
Shekelle and Salim, 2009 (Oryx)
17. Field Methods in Tropical Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
Taught in beautiful North Sulawesi, Indonesia!
18. Field Methods in Tropical Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
Taught in beautiful North Sulawesi, Indonesia!
Week 1: Plants—Habitat Mapping and Near Sensing
rapid biodiversity survey techniques and citizen science approaches.
plant sampling collection techniques for various purposes, including
morphological descriptions, digital, and DNA.
analysis and integration into existing web resources.
Week 2: Animal Capture and Survey Techniques
mistnetting birds, bats and tarsiers…safely.
conducting density surveys.
Week 3: Radiotelemetry and behavior
radiotelemetry: direct follows vs. triangulation, calculating home range
behavior: activity patterns (forage, travel etc), interobserver reliability tests.
19. Field Methods in Tropical Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation
Taught in beautiful North Sulawesi, Indonesia!
Dr. Myron Shekelle Dr. Chuck Cannon
Dr. Sharon Gursky
Slide 1: Good afternoon, I want to thank Associate Professor Luis Ruedas and Erin Shortlidge for inviting me here today and organizing this talk.
Slide 2: I gave a talk here in the Biology Department back on November 19, 2009 titled: “Sulawesi Tarsiers: Revealing the Most Complex Biogeographical Region with the Most Unusual Primate”. In attendance that day was a prospective graduate student, Olivia Kulander. After the talk, Livi approached me and told me that what I had described in the talk was exactly what she wanted to do for her graduate work. Within a few months, I had been offered a courtesy appointment here as Visiting Assistant Professor and Adjunct Curator, I was awarded two grants, and I was able to take Livi to the field with me in the summer of 2010.
Slide 3: Now, Livi is enrolled in the M.Sc. program in this department, and is in Sulawesi, working in some of my most carefully developed field sites, with some of my best trained field assistants and Indonesian students, and she is reasonably well-funded to do all of this via her Fulbright Fellowship. And that is really what I want to talk about today: how all of that came to be, and if it might not be able to happen for one or two more students from Portland State University. So, I plan to spend about 30 to 45 minutes doing that, and then have some time for questions at the end.
First, it’s been more than three years since I gave a talk to this department, and I am not in residence here in Portland, so it will be worth taking a few moments to reintroduce myself and my research to you.I am Dr. Myron Shekelle. In addition to being a Visiting Assistant Professor here in the Biology Department, I am also a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group, and as such I author or coauthor almost all of the IUCN Red List Threat Assessments. I live in Bellingham, Washington, and also work with the Anthropology Department at Western Washington University.
