Monkey Data

When surveying monkeys, Lindsay carefully selects the trail and the time for her transects. Trails were chosen at the beginning of her study based upon interviews with Wildlife Department staff and local hunters. Using this information, she choose the transects based upon the greatest probability of actually seeing Roloway monkeys. This will bias her findings, but will give her the best chance of seeing these critically endangered animals.

Lindsay walks the trails at either dawn or dusk because this is when monkeys are most active. While on the trail, if a sound is heard, everyone stops to listen and look. Often it is just a tree branch or leaf falling, but sometimes it is a monkey moving in the trees. When a monkey is heard or seen, the location is marked with a red flag. Later Lindsay and John will return to the marked spot and do a vegetation plot survey of this area.

Additionally, notes are taken as to which trail, the distance from the beginning of the trail, type of monkey, what behavior was observed, indication (how she observed them), size of the group, height in the canopy, their distance from the trail and the time.

This data are then compiled with data from all the other transects. When Lindsay returns to the United States she will calculate the rate of how often she encountered each monkey species and she will estimate the density of monkey groups for each species. She will also document polyspecific associations— or when multiple species are seen together. For example when monas are seen at the same site with spot-nosed monkeys.

Data Codes

The following codes are used in the data:

Forest Type
    S=Secondary; forest has been logged in the last 40 years.
    OS=Old Secondary; forest has been logged in the past, but not within 40 years.
    M=Mature; forest has never been logged
    O=Other

Monkey Codes
    LOGU=Lowe’s mona monkey
    SNGU=Lesser spot-nosed monkey
    OLCO=Olive colobus
    BWCO=Black-and-white colobus
    ROGU=Roloway monkey
    WCMA=White-crowned magabey
    CHMP=chimpanzee
    UNKN=unknown
    GU=guenon, used to describe non colobus monkeys in Africa

Human Disturbance
    0=none
    1=light
    2=moderate
    3=heavy

Interpreting the Data

Lindsay will attempt to answer the following questions once she is back home and begins to analyze her data.

• Do species of monkeys prefer one forest type to another?
• What factors might influence this preference?
  
• Does human activity appear to influence the monkeys?
  
• Did Lindsay see one monkey species more than the others?
  
• Does the time of day effect the sightings?
  
• Considering Ankasa, did the time of year seem to influence the number of monkeys seen?
  

Below is Adobe Acrobat files of the monkey data she has. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.

• Monkey Data