Arsi Gelada (Theropithecus gelada)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 10051364

 

Gelada is an Old World monkey endemic to Ethiopian highlands and found mainly on the highlands of Amhara and Oromia Regions. Geladas possibly contain three subspecies including the rare Arsi gelada subspecies (Theropithecus gelada unnamed sub-species), in Indetu, eastern Arsi, Ethiopia. From August 2010 to December 2011, we carried out the study on the behaviour and ecology, specifically focusing on the current population status, distribution, activity time budget, ranging patterns, feeding ecology and conservation threats of the rare Arsi gelada subspecies (Theropithecus gelada unnamed sub-species), in Indetu, eastern Arsi, Ethiopia. A total of 529 individuals of geladas at 11 different sites were recorded at Eastern Arsi areas. Feeding was the major activity time budget accounting (41.7%), followed by moving (20.3%), resting (19.0%), grooming (9.2%), playing (5.1%), aggression (3.3%), and sexual activity (1.4%). The overall diet of Arsi gelada during the study period was dominated by grass blades contributing to 53.5%. However, they also consumed underground roots (26.9%), unidentified tubers (7.5%), herb leaves (7.3%), others (3.0) and corms (1.7%). The overall home range area utilized by the geladas at Arsi was 4.91 km2.

The main threats of Arsi geladas are habitat loss and degradation because of agricultural expansion and human settlement due to the increasing human population growth. In addition, grazing land competition with domestic animals and hamadryas baboon is another threat facing Arsi geladas. Furthermore, hunting in response to crop raiding on the nearby agricultural lands and climate change due to the global warming are also another threats facing Arsi geladas at a very high risk of extinction unless conservation and management plans are implemented. 

This project has resulted in a paper published in Primates 

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10329-017-0640-9