Members

• Dr. Warren Y. Brockelman
• Dr. Varaporn Akkarapratumwong

Research Goals

Conservation genetics

Methodology has been developed for estimation of population size and study of social behavior of wild elephants in Salak Phra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi Province, using non-invasive sampling of microsatellite markers from DNA.

Two Ph.D. students have recently developed a sufficient number of primers for hypervaiable microsatellite loci which can be used for fingerprinting elephants. These are being used for estimating the elephant population in Salak Phra WS where 500 dung samples have been collected. A marker has been found for sexing the elephants. Juvenile elephants can be indentified and approximately aged from the sizes of dung balls. Over the next year the following goals will be pursued:

• Estimation of range and population size of elephants in the sanctuary:
• Recognition of mather-daughter pairs, and full siblings;
• Estimation of the number and ranges of social groups;
• Compare the genetic diversity of elephants in Salak Phra with that of larger wild populations, and with the domestic population.

Behavior and ecology

At least 10 social groups of gibbons (Hylobates lar) in the Mo Singto area of Khao Yai National Park,have been followed for over 20 years, and their ranges have been mapped. One of these groups occupies the forest within the 30-hectare Mo Singto Forest Dynamics Plot, on which all trees have been..