This project will develop a Conservation Response Unit (CRU) as an important tool to sustain the ecologically diverse wildlife environment in Bengkulu Province, Sumatra. The project involves the training of captive elephants for forest patrol. These elephants carry their mahout (elephant trainers) and armed forest rangers to fight forest crime, rescue wild animals, herd wild elephants away from human settlements and fields, and provide community outreach. The project collaborates with the Fauna and Flora International (FFI) Tiger Protection Units operating in Kerinci-Seblat National Park. Project leaders maintain records of wild elephant sightings in order to assess the elephant population, control illegal logging, control land encroachment by illegal settlers and help mitigate human-elephant conflict in the area.

This project is designed to learn as much as possible about the natural history and basic ecology of wild king cobras, and to use this information to better manage and conserve the species and the habitat on which it depends. The research team is making use of both radio-telemetry and miniature surgically implanted temperature data loggers to examine the species’ thermal ecology and activity patterns. This is the first-ever detailed field study of the king cobra, and the first-ever radio-telemetry study of any snake species in India. The research team has had the unique ability to observe several wild king cobras interacting with the study animals and have documented an amazing array of behaviors, including male-to-male combat, mate guarding, courtship, mating, predation, and two instances of cannibalism. The project will also provide an opportunity to educate Indian students about how to conduct scientific research, including project design and coordination, field techniques, and analysis and presentation of results. Eventually, the research team hopes to work with local communities and state forestry officials to designate the area as a king cobra preserve.

The Grevy’s zebra has undergone the most substantial range reductions of any African mammal, now found in the wild only in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The species has declined from an estimated 15,000 animals in the late 1970s to current estimates of between 2,000 and 2,500 animals and is now listed by the IUCN (World Conservation Union) as endangered. This project uses radio-tracking in order to achieve its goals, which include monitoring survivorship of foals belonging to collared Grevy’s zebra females, identification of breeding hotspots so that these animals can be managed proactively by communities to enhance foal survivorship, recording of other Grevy’s zebras associated with collared individuals and ground-truthing habitat type where collared individuals are located.

Golden-lion tamarins (GLTs) are squirrel-sized, brightly golden-colored monkeys that once occupied all lowland Atlantic Forest in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Unfortunately, development and deforestation has left only 7% of the original forest remaining in a series of small, non-contiguous fragments. It is in these forest fragments that the remaining wild populations of GLTs persist. The Golden-lion Tamarin Species Survival Plan (SSP) is one of the AZA’s most iconic conservation programs. This program, more than any other, effectively marries captive population management and the conservation of a species in nature. Riverbanks’ support will contribute to ongoing conservation master planning, monitoring GLT populations, managing GLTs in the wild, habitat monitoring and management, community liaison and community relations to support and sustain strategic actions, cultivating and promoting local, regional, national and international partnerships and policy framework, and maintaining the administrative capacity to implement these activities.