The southern patas is due to feature again on this list in 2024. The latest record of a southern patas monkey was that of an adult male in June 2023, researchers say. In 2022, there were just two confirmed sightings: a group of eight individuals and one solitary animal. All three of these sightings were made within acacia woodlands in western parts of Tanzania\u2019s Serengeti National Park.<\/p>\n
De Jong and Butynski have maintained a database of southern patas monkey sightings since 2004. Over the past 20 years, those sightings have dwindled in tandem with the monkeys\u2019 shrinking numbers and geographic range.<\/p>\n
Research papers the pair authored in 2009 and 2021, for instance, described Grumeti Game Reserve, Ikorongo Game Reserve and Ikona Wildlife Management Area as strongholds for this species. These are all protected areas that adjoin the top of the western corridor of the Serengeti, where it juts out toward Lake Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past few years, however, this monkey has not been reported from any of these three areas,\u201d De Jong told Mongabay. \u201cIt appears that this species is now present only in the western Serengeti National Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Altogether, the monkeys\u2019 range, which used to extend across central and north Tanzania into parts of southern Kenya, has shrunk by around 85% since the early 20th century, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should further alert the Tanzanian authorities responsible for the conservation of the nation\u2019s biodiversity, as well as national and international conservation organizations,\u201d De Jong said.<\/p>\n On those rare occasions when southern patas monkeys have been spotted in the wild, and coordinates of the sightings have been recorded, Butynski and De Jong have used these to estimate the monkeys\u2019 current tiny distribution.<\/p>\n George Lohay is head scientist at the Grumeti Fund, a nonprofit that carries out conservation and community development work in the Serengeti\u2019s western corridor. Grumeti Fund staff and tour guides from Singita, a local ecotourism firm, recorded the second-last known sighting of southern patas monkeys in 2022. Lohay said that 15 years ago the animals were frequently spotted in the 24,200-hectare (59,800-acre) Ikona Wildlife Management Area.<\/p>\n In 2022, his colleagues saw just nine in total. \u201cUnfortunately, the population in this area has since disappeared entirely.\u201d<\/p>\n The Grumeti Fund plans to submit a proposal to the state-run Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute to carry out its own survey of the monkeys next year, Lohay said. This will include setting up camera traps in the southern patas\u2019s last refuge in the western Serengeti.<\/p>\n \u201cOur immediate priority is to determine the current population size and identify the causes behind their decline,\u201d he said. \u201cThis will enable us to make informed recommendations for conservation actions.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a worrying sign that the wide network of informants comprising researchers, safari guides, camp owners and cattle herders that Butynski and De Jong have cultivated over the past 20 years have not reported a sighting in 2024. With their distinctive black face masks and russet-colored backs, this species can\u2019t be mistaken for anything else.<\/p>\n \u201cHerders are a great source of information, [especially] when it concerns historic records,\u201d Butynski said. \u201cPeople generally readily identify this species when shown a photograph or drawing.\u201d<\/p>\n If the southern patas monkeys are now restricted to the western Serengeti, the species is likely marooned there. Areas just beyond the park\u2019s western boundary are heavily populated with people and their dogs, which pose a grave risk to the monkeys as they try to reach scarce water sources.<\/p>\n \u201cDomestic dogs kill primates, including the semiterrestrial patas monkey,\u201d Butynski said.<\/p>\n He added he worries that without urgent conservation action, the southern patas will become the second African primate to go extinct in recent years. Miss Waldron\u2019s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus waldroni), once resident in Ghana and C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, haven\u2019t been recorded by experts in the wild for more than 40 years and are believed to be extinct.<\/p>\n \u201cThere seems to be a high chance that the southern patas monkey will be next, and soon,\u201d Butynski said.<\/p>\n