Reiko Matsuda - Primatological Fieldwork in Benin

Reiko Matsuda has completed 21-months of dissertation research in the Lama forest, a tropical dry forest with extreme seasonality, of Republic of Benin in West Africa. African dry forests have traditionally received little attention from primatologists as well as other behavioral ecologists as a target site of long-term studies. She collected natural history and behavioral data of the mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) to examine how their behavior may be correlated with seasonal ecological changes. Her data contain some new information about dry forest ecology and behavioral ecology of the mona monkey which await fine analysis. Some of these data will be extremely valuable in implementing a conservation program for the red-bellied morph (or subspecies?) of Cercopithecus erythrogaster and the olive colobus monkey (Procolobus verus) which are at risk of local extinction.