Study site and subjects
Data were collected from wild geladas in the Simien Mountains National
Park, Ethiopia as part of the Simien Mountains Gelada Research Project
(SMGRP). The SMGRP has collected behavioral, demographic, and hormonal
data from a population of wild geladas since 2006 and began conducting
annual capture-and-release campaigns in 2017 under the supervision of
licensed veterinarians and veterinary technicians. A subset of adult
geladas were anesthetized with Telinject blow darts (Telinject USA Inc.)
containing ketamine (~7.5 mg/kg) and medetomidine
(~0.04 mg/kg). Animals were monitored for temperature,
pulse, and respiration every 10 min during data collection, and sedation
was reversed with atipamezole (0.2 mg/kg). Individuals were monitored
through recovery until they returned to their social unit. All data were
collected with permission from the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation
Authority, and all research was approved by the Institutional Animal
Care and Use Committee (for the University of Michigan IACUC:
PRO00008871 and Stony Brook University IACUC: 773805 for non-invasive
work; and for the University of Washington IACUC: 4416-01 and Arizona
State University IACUC: 20-1754R for the capture-and-release work) and
followed all laws and guidelines in Ethiopia. This research conformed to
the American Society of Primatologists/International Primatological
Society Code of Best Practices for Field Primatology.