About This Project

Help us contribute to primate conservation by preventing the spread of human infectious diseases to monkeys! We want to better understand the risks of disease transmission from tourists visiting South Africa to Chacma baboons indigenous to the region.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

We want to understand infectious disease risks to both tourists and Chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) when the two groups are brought together through tourism. Many wild primate populations have been decimated by diseases transmitted by humans, and many pathogens are transmitted from wild primates to humans, including immunodeficiency viruses and malaria. By conducting surveys of tourists at the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, South Africa, we can better understand tourist health status, motivations regarding environmental behaviors, their knowledge of environmental problems, their willingness to take risks, and their affinity for wildlife. Each of these factors can influence disease transmission.

What is the significance of this project?

Previous research from our group in both Borneo and Japan highlights the biological and behavioral risks of disease transmission between tourists and primates. We found that tourists often showed symptoms of infectious disease, and many were either not vaccinated against major diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, or didn't know their current vaccination status. While the majority of tourists believed that humans could give diseases to primates, many tourists would still feed monkeys and apes at the nature reserves if given the opportunity. This is a bad idea!

Because tourist demographics (and therefore, beliefs and knowledge) vary from site to site, we want to add South Africa to our previous work in Asia. While Chacma baboons are not currently threatened or endangered, tourism at Cape Point continues to increase rapidly, making this context of human and monkey interaction in South Africa ideal for surveying.

It's important for the health of apes and monkeys (often endangered or threatened species) that we understand and manage sources of pathogen transmission. As ecotourism becomes more popular, we must gather this information quickly but thoroughly, so that effective intervention (like masks for symptomatic tourists) can be implemented as soon as possible.

What are the goals of the project?

Funds will be used for five roundtrip airline tickets (between Indianapolis, USA and Cape Town, South Africa) for myself and 4 of my graduate students. We will spend two weeks at Cape Point where we will use electronic tablets to survey 1000 tourists about their travel health knowledge, attitudes and practices, health status, opinions on ecotourism, and motivations for primate tourism.

This research is an excellent training opportunity for students interested in public health, conservation, and anthropology.

Results of this project will be published in scientific journals, and presented at professional meetings and elsewhere. We also intend to use these data to draft policy statements to improve primate conservation in South Africa.