Missing Yerkes monkey prompts visit by feds

LAWRENCEVILLE — Personnel from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources met with staff at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center on Wednesday regarding the monkey that went missing from its Lawrenceville field office earlier this month.

A 2-year-old female rhesus macaque was unaccounted for at the research center on Taylor Lane on June 15. The public was alerted through a statement issued by Yerkes almost a week later, on June 21.

USDA and DNR personnel met with Yerkes officials Wednesday to “discuss the missing monkey, the steps Yerkes staff members have taken to locate it and the center’s standard operating procedures,” center spokeswoman Lisa Newbern said.

According to a statement issued by Newbern after 6 p.m. Wednesday, the results were not conclusive.

“At the conclusion of the half-day visit,” the statement read, “the USDA issued a brief report noting the results of the investigation are as yet inconclusive and that the incident is still under review.”

Officials at the USDA, which oversees the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, could not be reached for comment Wednesday evening.

While it’s likely government representatives would have made their way to Lawrenceville anyway, extra urging from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals might have helped.

In a formal complaint filed last week, PETA asserted that “the escape indicated that the federally funded facility may have violated several provisions of the (Animal Welfare Act).”

Those violations, according to the animal rights group, include failure to ensure that personnel are qualified to perform their duties, failure to adequately supervise employees and failure to ensure that primary enclosures securely contain nonhuman primates.

“These intelligent, sensitive animals don’t deserve the loneliness and trauma of life in a laboratory,” PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo said in a statement. “At the very least, Yerkes should adhere to the minimal standards put forth by the only federal law that provides any protection, the Animal Welfare Act.”

Yerkes officials have repeatedly stressed that the escaped macaque is not infected with the herpes B virus, a common disease in the breed that can be deadly in humans. Newbern told the Daily Post last week that she wouldn’t be surprised if the monkey in question was still somewhere in the field office.

The Caboose Chronicle: Avoid an unwanted visit from a bear

ATLANTA -- Summer is a great time for seeing bears, even if a visit to more traditional bear habitats -- or the zoo -- isn't on the agenda.

But one way to avoid an unwanted visit from one of the 5,100 bears estimated to live in the Peach State: don't feed the bears.

"Bears can become habituated to people when they are fed – whether intentional or not," Adam Hammond, wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, said in a news release.

"When a bear knows it can get a 'free meal,' it will return again and again until eventually it loses its natural fear of humans," Hammond added. "This is when the majority of human-bear conflicts occur and the bear is labeled a nuisance."

Another way to avoid a visit from a bear is to store garbage in the garage if necessary and keep grills and bird feeders in areas bears can't access, experts say.

In Georgia, bears are usually found in one of a few areas -- the north Georgia mountains, around the Ocmulgee River in middle Georgia and in the Okefenokee Swamp in the southern part of the state.

BEARS IN GEORGIA

Black bears commonly are found in three areas of the state - the north Georgia mountains, the Ocmulgee River drainage system in central Georgia and the Okefenokee Swamp in the southeastern part of the state. However, black bears can and do range over larger areas; especially in early spring and late summer, when natural food sources are scarce. Young male bears are also known to disperse in an effort to establish their own territory.

Though the American black bear (Ursus americanus) is now considered the most common bear in North America and the only native bear found in Georgia, at one point the species was nearly eradicated from the state due to poaching and habitat loss. Yet, because of sound wildlife management practices Georgia's current black bear population is healthy and thriving and estimated at approximately 5,100 bears statewide.

For more information regarding black bears, visit www.georgiawildlife.com , contact a WRD Game Management office or call (770) 918-6416. The public also can visit their local library to check out a copy of an informational DVD entitled, "Where Bears Belong: Black Bears in Georgia.

Resource index, a guide to natural resource information of Georgia / [compiled by J. Steven Storey, Resource Planning Section, Department of Natural Resources].

Natural resources of Georgia

Biennial report

Mississippi period archaeology of the Georgia coastal plain

Outdoor Georgia