Primate Education Initiative

Kara Leimberger and Aaron Sandel are co-teaching 6th graders about primates in a 2-week course at Chewning Middle School. It has been fun and exhausting so far. Each student has a primate that they are studying. Today we taught them about primate diets. After learning the terms folivore and frugivore, they made salads based on the diet of their primate. (We couldn't get our hands on insects, so we used gummy worms....).

Teaching this course is part of an independent study Kara is doing on Primate Conservation Education. She is developing lesson plans that engage students of various ages and get them interested and excited about primates and conservation.

Here Kara helps the students as they select the different food items their primates eat. We had figs, celery, leafy greens, nectar, edible flowers, and more! Conservation is...healthy eating!

If you are a student or teacher and would like a guest lecture or material on primates, please email us. Also, if you are interested in helping out, let us know. You can email us at nc.roots.shoots@gmail.com.

First Lemur Center Work Day

Have you been to the Duke Lemur Center? Ever wanted to be face to face with an endangered sifaka or aye aye?

This Saturday, Oct 2 from 10:30am-12:30pm is our first work day of the semester at the Duke Lemur Center! We will start with a tour of the Lemur Center, followed by getting our hands dirty.

We may do some trail work in the natural habitat enclosures, build enrichment for the lemurs, and/or work in some of the lemur enclosures weeding and adding gravel.

If you can't make it this weekend, don't worry. We have work days planned for Oct 30, Nov 6, Nov 20, and Dec 4.

Email megan.morikawa@duke.edu if you are interested in coming (and mention whether you have a car or not) and we will figure out transportation.

Photos from work day last winter. Photo credit: Brandon Semel.

Palm Oil

One of the threats to primates discussed at the "Role of undergraduates in primate conservation" working group last May was palm oil. Palm oil is becoming increasingly popular in consumer goods, from cookies to lotions. Much of palm oil agriculture is unsustainable. Forests in south east Asia are leveled for palm oil plantations, destroying the animal inhabitants (including endangered orangutans).

Photo: Aaron Logan, wiki commons

Look at the ingredients of the foods you eat. Ask your grocery store or dining hall about where their palm oil comes from.

We went to Whole Foods to ask about their palm oil use (since they should be more sensitive about sustainable food practices). We got this (somewhat positive) response, which came from the Global Coordinator of Whole Foods' Exclusive & Private Label Brands:

Palm Oil

Due to the health concerns about hydrogenated fats, manufacturers have switched to palm oil as a trans-fat-free alternative that provides similar results in product consistency and stability.

Whole Foods Market has partnered with the Institute for Marketecology (IMO), a highly regarded international certification agency whose social responsibility and fair trade certification program requires successful implementation of environmental, social responsibility, and sustainability practices on the land and within the company’s organization.

This reliable certification program provides for the verification and development of additional sources of sustainable, fair traded palm oil. WFM pledges that only certified sustainable sources of palm oil will be used in our Exclusive Brands products by 2012.

Palm oil is a consumer product. As consumers, every individual has the power to change the way palm oil is produced. Express your concerns! Don't let orangutans go extinct in our lifetime...

Here is more info on palm oil:

The Problem with Palm Oil

Green Palm

Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil

The role of undergraduates in primate conservation

On May 1, 2010 at Duke University, we organized a working group ("The role of undergraduates in primate conservation") to review the threats facing primates and discuss the role of American universities, zoos and primate centers in primate conservation. Members included leaders in primate conservation from universities and zoos (e.g. Dr. Tom Struhsaker, Dr. Rich Bergl and Dr. Josh Linder), university administrators, and graduate and undergraduate students passionate about primate conservation.

Some of the take-away points from this working group are:

• need for increased conservation themes in university curriculum
• solutions to many of the threats to primates relate to human health and education, requiring collaborations with people in global health, environmental education, and social justice

In addition, from this working group, undergraduate students from James Madison University who participated decided to create their own Roots & Shoots group.

We hope to have a second working group in the spring of 2011 that includes more people from global health and civic engagement as well as primatology and conservation. The goal of the second meeting will be to develop a primate conservation undergraduate action plan.

Roots & Shoots in 2010

After 2 years, the Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots group finally has a critical mass of members. Our group was formed in April, 2009 by Megan Morikawa (Duke 2012), Chase Pickering (UNC 2011) and Aaron Sandel (me) (Duke 2010). Now we have more members and are working on lots of projects.

Two things that come to mind:

We will be starting volunteer work-days at the Duke Lemur Center (lemur.duke.edu) in a few weeks (the first one is planned for Oct 2). At the work-days we go on a tour (see photo to the left of Megan and me leading a tour) of the Lemur Center and then help out with various projects, ranging from pulling weeds to making enrichment for the lemurs.

Kara Leimberger (Duke 2011) and I are co-teaching a 2-week course on primates for 6th graders at Chewning Middle School in Durham. This is part of the Duke/UNC Roots & Shoots group's Primate Conservation Education initiative. We are about to start day 3. Hopefully Kara will post some comments and photos. After the 2 weeks, Kara and I will keep developing lesson plans on primates and primate conservation for elementary-high school students.

There are lots of other projects underway. If you are interested in getting involved, email me (aaron.sandel@duke.edu) or Megan (megan.morikawa@duke.edu). This is mainly for people in the Triangle area (but we are also interested other collaborations, especially with college students).