Exotic monkeys Sentitif on Global Warming

The monkeys called Wild Drills, a species that has been hunted too much and could have a dramatic population decline if they dry out forests in the middle of the temperature increases.

Wild Drills are threatened with extinction is related to the baboons and mandrills. Mandrillus leucophaeus Latin name, the exotic monkey found in the rainforests of equatorial regions of Africa.

The researchers studied DNA from 54 samples, which are mostly dirt collected in the coastal forest Cross-Sanaga-Bioko which stretches across parts of Nigeria, Bioko Island and Cameroon.

"Looking at the modern genetic diversity, you can infer recent changes in population size. Drill population decline of up to approximately 15-fold," said researcher Nelson Ting, a professor at the University of Oregon.

The evidence led them to the fossil and pollen records, find out when the decline occurs. They found a decrease in forest pollen (and by extension, the main habitat of forest decline drill) which occurs at about the mid-Holocene, between 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.

At that time, temperatures in the equatorial area of ​​Africa is more hot and dry, and there is little forest. The current global warming could have similar effects, which can menimbulka disaster for exotic monkeys.

"We can see a lot of forest in a very arid equator. Forest vegetation will be lost because of changes to adapt to the increasingly dry conditions," Ting said the research results published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

"The type of this animal, which is highly endangered due to poaching, will not be able to face the climate change that could happen," he added.