Webinar June 2020

Live streaming on Facebook 15 June 2020 2-4.30pm GMT

LINK TO THE WEBINAR VIDEO THROUGH FACEBOOK

Cercopithecines, People and Covid-19

Organisers: Siân Waters, Susan M Cheyne & Malene Friis Hansen

Siân Waters – Introduction to Cercopithecines, People and Covid-19

Thomas Gillespie – What are the risks and how can we mitigate COVID-19 for Cercopithecines and people in shared environments?

Bio – Dr Thomas Gillespie is a professor of Environmental Sciences and Environmental Health at Emory University and a member of the IUCN PSG COVID-19 Task Force, Section for Great Apes, and Section for Human-Primate Interactions.  For more than 20 years, his research has examined interactions among anthropogenic environmental change; biodiversity; and the ecology and emergence of disease in wild primates, domestic animals, and people in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Madagascar.

Twitter: @BiodiversHealth

Lauren Gilhooly – Fewer people, fewer problems? How changes in tourism can affect macaque behaviour

Bio – Lauren Gilhooly recently received her PhD in Anthropology from The University of Western Ontario. Her research focused on the interactions between macaques and tourists at the Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre in Sabah, Malaysia. Her current postdoctoral research will explore the impacts of reforestation efforts on communities along the Kinabatangan River in Sabah.

Twitter: @LaurenGihooly

Malene Friis Hansen & Ventie Angelia Nawangsari, – Creating demand, then cutting supply: A case study of macaque provisioning in real time.

Bio – Ventie Angelia Nawangsari, MSc, is the Biodiversity Officer for the Copenhagen Zoo’s Baluran National Park programme in East Java, Indonesia. Before this she worked as the Field Project Supervisor for Malene Friis Hansen’s doctoral research at Baluran.

Bio – Dr Malene Friis Hansen, is currently a research affiliate at Oxford Brookes University and a member of the IUCN PSG Section for Human-Primate Interactions. She conducted her PhD research based at Copenhagen Zoo and University of Copenhagen investigating the ecological effects of provisioning on long-tailed macaques in Baluran National Park, Indonesia. She has worked in rescue centres, zoological gardens, and at animal keeping college.

Twitter: @MaleneFHansen

Tanvir Ahmed – Human-Primate Conflicts in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bio: Tanvir Ahmed studied a Zoology BA at Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. After his wildlife and biodiversity conservation Master’s (2017-18), Tanvir initiated a project on the population status of Endangered Phayre’s langur in the north-eastern forests of Bangladesh. He also conducted fieldwork on Western hoolock gibbon. Broadly his interests include the ecology, behaviour, and conservation planning for primates in fragmented landscapes. Tanvir is also keenly following the patterns of human-primate interactions in Bangladesh.

Twitter: @wildprimate

Magdalena Bermejo – Ape Case Studies and Human Interactions: Can people-primate interactions change during and after an epidemic?

Bio – Magdalena Bermejo has a PhD in Neuro Cognitive Science and Behavioural Methodology from the Dept of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona. She spent 3 years studying Autism spectrum disorder. Dr Bermejo has field experience with chimpanzees in Niokolo-Koba (Senegal), bonobos in DRC, in the area of Ikela (north-east of Kisangani), and Western lowland gorillas in and around Odzala National Park (North Congo), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea.

Siân Waters -Covid-19 and its potential effects on the demand for pet and photo prop primates

Bio – Dr Siân Waters is the founder and director of a community conservation project in Morocco practising an inclusive, bottom up strategy to decrease the illegal trade in the Endangered Barbary macaque. She is an honorary research fellow at the Department of Anthropology of Durham University (UK). Siân’s current research focuses on the complex facets of human-primate coexistence including primate tourism and trade. Siân is co vice-chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group’s Section on Human-Primate Interactions (SHPI).

Twitter: @sianswaters

Q&A  – We encourage questions to the panellists via the Comments section of our Facebook livestreaming event.