Earthwatch Award Recipient Summary

Awardee: Patricia Wright, Ph.D.
Affiliation: State University of New York, Stony Brook
Project: Madagascar's Lemurs
Award: 2000 Principal Investigator of the Year

Project Synopsis
Dr. Patricia Wright has spent nearly two decades working on behalf of Madagascar's forests, people, and wildlife, especially the island's unique lemurs. She identified a new species of lemur previously unknown to science, the golden bamboo lemur, in 1986. Dr. Wright also spearheaded the creation of Ranomafana National Park and helped thousands of villagers initiate sustainable community development practices. Earthwatch teams working with Dr. Wright and colleagues over the past decade have helped her explore the behavior and ecology of several species of lemurs in Ranomafana's rainforest-covered mountains. By following lemur groups and documenting the interactions of individuals, Dr. Wright has been able to identify the social structures of these endangered primates and aid in designing effective conservation plans.

Award Outcomes
The Principal Investigator of the Year Award allowed Dr. Wright to:

· Purchase radio collars to more effectively follow lemurs

Dr. Wright and her Earthwatch teams have focused on the behavior of Milne-Edwards sifakas, Propithecus edwardsi, the largest lemurs living in Ranomafana National Park. Her Earthwatch award funded the purchase of radio collars, making it possible for Dr. Wright and colleagues to find these animals more quickly and easily. The result has been a landslide of new findings, from the details of the sifaka's female-dominant social structure to their ecological relationship to the threatened Madagascar rainforest. These outcomes validate Earthwatch's support of long-term field research on primates, in the tradition of Jane Goodall and Jeanne Altmann, and provide vital information for designing effective conservation plans in the region.

Publications and Papers
Pochron, S. T., Morelli, T.L., Scirbona, J. and Wright, P. C. (in press, 2005). Patterns of scent marking in female Propithecus edwardsi of Ranomafana, Madagascar. American Journal of Primatology.

Pochron, S. T., Terranova, T., Morelli, T.L., Scirbona, J., Cohen J., Kunapareddy, G., Rakotonirina, G., Ratsimbazafy, R., Rakotosoa, R. and Wright, P. C. (in press, 2005). Patterns of male scent marking in Propithecus edwardsi of Ranomafana, Madagascar. American Journal of Primatology.

Pochron, S.T., and Wright, P.C. (in press, 2005). Testes size and body weight in the
Milne-Edwards' sifaka (Propithecus edwardsi) of Ranomafana National Park,
Madagascar, relative to other strepsirhine primates. Folia Primatologica.

Wright, P.C., Andriamihaja, B.R., and Raharimiandra, S. (2005). Tanala
Synecological Relations with Lemurs in Southeast Madagascar. In: Commensalism and
Conflict: the primate - human interface. (Eds. J. D. Paterson and J. Wallis).
Kluwer Press, New York.

Wright P.C., Razafindratsita T., Pochron S.T., and Jernvall J. (2005). The
key to frugivory in Madagascar. In: Key Stone Resources: A New View (Eds. J. Dew,
and H. Boubli). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.

Lehman S., and Wright P.C. (2004). Ecogeographic size variations in sifakas: A test of the resource seasonality and resource quality hypotheses. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Mayor, M.I., Sommer, J.A., Houck, M.L., Zaonarivelo, J.R., Wright, P.C.,
Ingram, C., Engel S.R., and Louis, Jr. E.E. (2004). Species status of Propithecus
spp. International Journal of Primatology 25 (4): 875-900.

Pochron, S.T., Tucker, W.T., and Wright, P.C. (in press, 2004). Demography, life
history and social structure in Propithecus diadema edwardsi from 1986 to 2000 of
Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Pochron S.T., Fitzgerald J., Gilbert C.C., Lawrence. L., Grgas. M.,
Rakotonirina. G., Ratsimbazafy. R., Rakotosoa. R., and Wright P.C. (2003). Patterns of
female dominance in Propithecus diadema edwardsi of Ranomafana National Park,
Madagascar. American Journal of Primatology 61 (4): 173-185.

Pochron S.T., and Wright P.C. (2003). Variability in adult group compositions
of a prosimian primate. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 54:285-293.

Also, presentations at American Society of Primatology, American Society of Physical Anthropologists and International Society of Primatologists.

Quotes
" It was a wonderful honor to receive the award, and especially nice to receive the honor from Earthwatch, as there are many excellent principal investigators to choose from.

"It's amazing how a little item like a radio collar can save hundreds of hours of wandering around the rainforest trying to find the animals. This has really helped expedite finding the lemurs, but also allowed us to find them at times when we couldn't find them before. Such as when they were out of range finding new fruit trees, or giving birth, or mating."

"I just want to thank Earthwatch for all their support through the years. We are approaching the twentieth year of continuous follows of our sifakas. There are few primate studies that are this long term, and I know I couldn't have kept the project going continuously without Earthwatch support. Thank you from me, the Propithecus team, all the Earthwatchers and the sifakas!"