Researchers Rally to Save Monkeys on Hurricane-Ravaged Island

Many of the monkeys living on Cayo

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Santiago, an island off Puerto Rico, are likely to have survived Hurricane Maria, which pummeled the island on 20 September. But the storm’s aftermath has left the island’s more than 1,500 rhesus macaques—including some used for autism research—in jeopardy.

Maria’s 155-mile-per-hour winds leveled a field station, stripped trees of their leaves and destroyed feeding corrals and rainwater collection systems. Without a working water system and the shade provided by trees, the animals could perish in the hot sun.

Researchers have launched a fundraising campaign to rebuild the water system and deliver critical supplies to the island, which sits half a mile off the coast of Punta Santiago, a town on Puerto Rico’s eastern shore. There is still no power, and field station employees need everything from solar panels to infant formula for their babies.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/researchers-rally-to-save-monkeys-on-hurricane-ravaged-island/