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| 10-23-2003 | Previous edition: 10-22-2003 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Student turns 'monkey business' into conservation endeavor
Staff Writer At the end of a school year, some students take classes, some do internships and others go home to visit family, but one Purdue student decided to work with monkeys. Abra Foster, junior in the School of Agriculture, traveled last summer to the country of Panama for 16 days to participate in a primate behavior and ecology course, which the Primate Foundation of Panama sponsored. The Foundation helps to preserve non-human primates through education and rehabilitation by placing the animals in a refuge called the Primate Refuge and Sanctuary of Panama. The sanctuary takes in captive monkeys and tries to rehabilitate and then release the primates into an island refuge located in the Islas Tigres and Brujas in Lake Gatun, near the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. While working with the foundation, Foster stayed in an old building within Panama City. She hiked 4 miles a day, slept on a small mattress surrounded in mosquito netting and withstood the tropical climate of Panama, all in the name of primate conservation. "It was a lot more comfy that I thought it would be," said Foster sweetly as she flipped through her scrapbook to the picture of her living quarters. She said she got the opportunity to observe four different breeds of monkeys and other native animals, such as the three-toed sloth, and many different kinds of insects. Foster’s mother, who supported her decision to work with the foundation, said she was both "excited and anxious" about the idea of her daughter working in Panama, but said she believed the trip was a tremendous experience for her daughter. Foster worked with eight other students hiking around the Metropolitan Nature Park taking a census of how many monkeys and other native animals they observed. Dennis Rasmussen, president of the Primate Foundation of Panama, said the research students such as Foster collect is essential information the foundation needs in order to determine whether the park’s conservation efforts are working. "Students who work with us in Panama make a difference," Rasmussen said via e-mail. "While they conduct research as part of a course, the research conducted is not just practice. The results are used to guide real conservation efforts." Foster said her favorite moment of each day was when she was able to interact with some of the foundation's monkeys that were temporarily quarantined in cages before being released into the refuge. "We would hike up to the lookout on our way home and catch a bag full of grasshoppers and feed them to the monkeys," she said. Foster said she loved every day she spent working with the foundation, but it was difficult knowing not all the monkeys would be helped. She said many monkeys are not able to make the transition back into the wild, and those released also face the risk of being killed by poachers. "Many residents in Panama view the monkeys in the same way that New Yorkers view sewer rats," said Foster. The Primate Refuge and Sanctuary of Panama also has been having recent problems with the Panama Canal Authority, which is threatening to shut the park down. Foster said she plans to continue to fight to keep the park open. She wants to make Purdue students aware of what is going on in order to gain support for the park. Her goals are similar to those of foundation head Rasmussen, who also thinks it is important to make a large university such as Purdue aware of the refuge and its conservation goals. "While seals on ice flows, manatees in the ocean, eagles soaring in Alaska and monkeys in a refuge in Panama may be far from Purdue, we all will be a bit more poor if they cease to exist," said Rasmussen. Foster said she was impressed by the park's success rate despite the problems the foundation has been having. Although she planned on going to graduate school in Africa, she now knows she also wants to return to the park to do further research. Foster’s mother said her daughter's entire family is supportive of her desire to go back. Her father, a horticulturist for the Indianapolis Zoo, has done work in many South American countries and is an inspiration for his daughter. Foster’s mother said she and her husband, who is quite used to traveling to countries such as Panama, would have no problem "all going down there together" in the future. Printer-friendly version |
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