The African Primate Initiative for Ecology and Speciation is a research team studying the biology, conservation, diversity and evolution of the primates of southern Africa and Madagascar: the bushbabies and lemurs, baboons and guenon monkeys that haunt our forests and woodlands. Primate biology (primatology) is a particularly interesting branch of zoology because of its potential to teach us more about ourselves and our history through understanding our four-handed relatives. From an ecological standpoint, primates are also particularly vulnerable to extinction because most of them rely on trees for their survival, and forests and woodlands are constantly being cut down for firewood, to clear areas for agriculture, and for commercial and residential developments.
In South Africa, many primates are also persecuted because their intelligence and adaptability has enabled them to survive in transformed habitats – like housing developments and farm land – where the other indigenous animals have gone extinct. Their problem-solving abilities make them difficult to keep out of the gardens, exotic pine forests and fruit orchards that have replaced their more traditional feeding areas, which often provokes violent reprisals from land owners.
The APIES team is committed to the study of this fascinating and uniquely interesting group of animals, in an effort to counteract the ignorance and prejudice surrounding them, and to provide crucial information for their continued survival and co-existence with that most destructive species of primates, us.