Addisu Mekonnen

The University of Calgary | HBI · Department of Anthropology

Primates inhabiting human-modified landscapes often exploit matrix habitat to supplement their diet with cultivated foods, at times resulting in economic losses and conflict with local people. Understanding human-nonhuman primate interactions and the attitudes and perceptions of local people towards crop feeding species are crucial to designing eff...

Open access to the scholarly literature is crucial for African academics but, without urgent action, the move from paywall to pay-to-publish wall will continue to disenfranchise researchers. In an unpublished study, we looked at the 40 journals with the highest impact factors in our field (ecology), and found that the average article-processing c...

Although selecting advantageous sleeping sites is crucial for nonhuman primates, the extent to which different factors contribute to their selection remains largely unknown for many species. We investigated hypotheses relating to predator avoidance, food access, and thermoregulation to explain the sleeping behavior of Bale monkeys ( Chlorocebus dja...

Forest loss and degradation are the most significant threats to terrestrial biodiversity in the tropics. Promoting flagship or umbrella species is a strategy that can be used to conserve intact forests and restore degraded ecosystems, conserve biodiversity, and achieve sustainable development goals. The Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) is an...

With open-access publishing authors often pay an article processing charge and subsequently their article is freely available online. These charges are beyond the reach of most African academics. Thus, the trend towards open-access publishing will shift the business model from a pay-wall model, where access to literature is limited, to a pay-to-pub...

Ethiopia is home to one of the richest and most unique assemblages of fauna and flora on the African continent. Contained within its borders are two major centers of endemism, the mesic Roof of Africa (also known as the Ethiopian Highlands) and the arid Horn of Africa, resulting from the country's varied topography and consequent geographic isolati...

Currently, the depletion of natural resources and contamination of the surrounding environment demand a paradigm shift to resource recycling and reuse. In this regard, phosphorus (P) is a model nutrient that possesses the negative traits of depletion (will be exhausted in the next 100 years) and environmental degradation (causes eutrophication and...

Many of the world’s most biodiverse regions are found in the poorest and second most populous continent of Africa; a continent facing exceptional challenges. Africa is projected to quadruple its population by 2100 and experience increasingly severe climate change and environmental conflict—all of which will ravage biodiversity. Here we assess conse...

Chlorocebus djamdjamensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T4240A205910680. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4240/205910680

Chlorocebus djamdjamensis ssp. harennaensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T205910110A205910458. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/205910110/205910458

Chlorocebus djamdjamensis ssp. djamdjamensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022: e.T205910256A205910259. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/205910256/205910259

Given the current rate of habitat degradation and loss in the tropics, data on primate population densities and habitat use are indispensable for assessing conservation status and designing feasible management plans for primates. The Omo River guereza (Colobus guereza guereza) is a subspecies of the eastern black-and-white colobus monkey endemic to...

With open-access publishing authors pay an article processing charge and subsequently their article is freely available online. These charges are beyond the reach of most African academics. Thus, the trend towards open access publishing will shift the business model from a pay-wall model, where access to literature is limited, to a pay-to-publish o...

Objectives Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that...

Objectives Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that...

The subspecific taxonomy and distribution of geladas (Theropithecus gelada Rüppell, 1835) remains uncertain. Recent molecular studies based on mitochondrial sequence data revealed a geographically structured, three‐deme population, suggesting that there are three evolutionary units of geladas. However, mitochondrial distributions do not always reco...

Reliable data on the distribution and threats facing primate species are crucial to identifying priority sites for conservation and designing effective management plans. Boutourlini’s blue monkey (Cercopithecus mitis boutourlinii) is a little-known arboreal primate endemic to the forests of western Ethiopia. This subspecies is categorized as Vulner...

IUCN Red List Theropithecus gelada profile

To cope with climate change and population growth, the continent urgently needs more home-grown researchers, argue Anagaw Atickem, Nils Chr. Stenseth and colleagues. To cope with climate change and population growth, the continent urgently needs more home-grown researchers, argue Anagaw Atickem, Nils Chr. Stenseth and colleagues. Students work at a...

The large-bodied, terrestrial primates in the tribe Papionini are among the most intensely studied animals in the world, yet for some members of this tribe we know comparatively little about their evolutionary history and phylogeography. Geladas (Theropithecus gelada Rüppell, 1835), endemic primates of the Ethiopian highlands, are largely unstudied...

ML tree showing phylogenetic relationships among gelada and baboon haplotypes. Numbers at nodes refer to bootstrap values in %. (PDF)

Bayesian tree showing phylogenetic relationships among gelada and baboon haplotypes. Numbers at nodes refer to posterior probabilities. (PDF)

Best-fit models for protein-coding and non-protein-coding partitions for various gelada populations as obtained from jModeltest for the Bayesian skyline plots (BSPs). (PDF)

Divergence age estimates (Ma) and respective 95% Highest Posterior Density (HPD) intervals. (PDF)

Geographic provenance of gelada samples (decimal degrees), their mtDNA haplotypes (h-type), haplogroups (h-group) and GenBank Accession Numbers. * Sample from northern range but with central haplotype. (PDF)

Selection for the “best” population model. (PDF)

Results of the Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) analyses. (PDF)

Nguyen N, Fashing PJ, Burke RJ. Determining the conservation status of gelada monkeys: Distribution, abundance and phylogenetic relationships of Theropithecus gelada across the Ethiopian Highlands. 2016; Unpubl. Final report to Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation. (PDF)

Species with a restricted geographic distribution, and highly specialized habitat and dietary requirements, are particularly vulnerable to extinction. The Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) is a little-known arboreal, bamboo-specialist primate endemic to the southern Ethiopian Highlands. While most Bale monkeys inhabit montane forests dominate...

Studies of the effects of habitat fragmentation and degradation on primate positional behavior, strata use, and substrate utilization offer valuable insights into the behavioral and ecological flexibility of primates whose habitats have undergone extensive anthropogenic disturbance. In this study, we evaluated how positional behavior, strata use, a...

Background: The gelada monkey (Theropithecus gelada), endemic to the Ethiopian highlands, is the only graminivorous primate, i.e., it feeds mainly on grasses and sedges. In spite of known dental, manual, and locomotor adaptations, the intestinal anatomy of geladas is similar to that of other primates. We currently lack a clear understanding of the...

Habitat fragmentation and degradation are the major threats to nonhuman primates in the tropics leaving many populations in isolated fragments in human-dominated landscapes. Thus, understanding the extent of the impacts of habitat fragmentation and degradation on a particular species is essential to designing species-based management strategies. Th...

Understanding the basic natural history of threatened primate taxa is crucial to developing and implementing successful conservation strategies for them. Data on feeding ecology and activity patterns are particularly important for identifying the strategies through which primates invest time and foraging effort towards survival and reproduction at...

Background: Understanding the effects of habitat modification on the feeding strategies of threatened species is essential to designing effective conservation management plans. Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) are endemic to the rapidly shrinking montane forests of the southern Ethiopian Highlands. Most populations inhabit continuous bambo...

Human activities can cause habitat degradation that may alter the types and quality of available food resources and thus influence the microbiomes of wild animal populations. Furthermore, seasonal shifts in food availability may cause adaptive responses in the gut microbiome to meet the need for different metabolic capabilities. Here, we demonstrat...

Understanding the extent to which primates in forest fragments can adjust behaviorally and ecologically to changes caused by deforestation is essential to designing conservation management plans. During a 12-month period, we studied the effects of habitat loss and degradation on the Ethiopian endemic, bamboo specialist, Bale monkey (Chlorocebus dja...

Comparisons of the behavior and ecology of primates living in intact and fragmented forest are critical to the development of conservation strategies for the many primate taxa threatened by habitat loss. From July 2009 to April 2010, we investigated the habitat use, ranging behavior, and diet of two groups of Boutourlini’s blue monkeys (Cercopithec...

Until recently, the Bale monkey (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis), an arboreal primate endemic to the southern Ethiopian highlands, remained virtually unstudied, and its distribution pattern inadequately documented. To broaden our knowledge of the species' distribution and abundance, we carried out interviews with local people and total count surveys for...

The Bale monkey Chlorocebus djamdjamensis is a little-known primate endemic to the south-eastern highlands of Ethiopia. From August 2007 to May 2008 we surveyed to determine the species' habitat preferences and population size in the Odobullu Forest and its range across the Bale Mountains. In Odobullu Forest a total of 136 transects of 1.8–3.0 km w...

Bale monkeys (Chlorocebus djamdjamensis) are little-known primates endemic to the forests of the Bale Massif and Hagere Selam regions of Ethiopia. From August 2007 to May 2008, we conducted the first ever study of the species’ behavior and ecology, focusing in particular on its diet, activity patterns, and ranging ecology in the Odobullu Forest. We...