‘Primates of Sri Lanka’, a 156 page guide to the primates of Sri Lanka has been published by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), as part of its efforts to promote wild life related tourism to the island.
‘Sri Lankan primates have an established track record of generating millions of US dollars worth of television coverage’ explains Dileep Mudadeniya, the Managing Director of the SLTPB.
‘We have realized that in the search for new tools for gaining media coverage we have to think laterally. Because of the fascination for primates in developed countries, they offer a good medium through which we can gain access to print and television in these countries.
Even high end travel magazines such as Conde Nast Traveller runs stories on primates and so do other travel magazines such as Wanderlust. We therefore realized that it would help Sri Lanka to have a publication which could be used by print and television media as a credible brief’ he said.
The publication which is authored by Anna Nekaris and Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, is sponsored by Metropolitan, the agents for Canon in Sri Lanka. At present it is available only in electronic format as a pdf and can be downloaded free of charge from www.srilanka.Travel, www.metropolitan.lk and www.jetwingeco.com.
‘Canon Cameras is the preferred choice of wildlife photographers world-wide. Sponsoring this pdf shows our support for conservation’ said Taslim Rahaman, CEO - Regions of Metropolitan. ‘Canon was delighted to sponsor the publication. Furthermore, it also underlines our support to Sri Lanka Tourism to brand Sri Lanka and generate tourism revenues in a post war environment’ Rahaman added.
Primates are a group of animals that fascinate television audiences world-wide. This is especially true of countries in Europe, which are an important source of tourist for Sri Lanka. In the 1980s, the BBC filmed ‘The Temple Troop’ and in 2009, Natural History New Zealand launched the 13 part series, Dark Days in Monkey City. Both of these drew on the work of the Smithsonian Primate Project in Polonnaruwa.
About the Book
The book was written by Dr. Anna Nekaris of Oxford Brookes University who conducted research work in Sri Lanka. Visits by her and her students have been supported by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, various individuals, organizations and companies in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector.
The latter include Jetwing Hotels, under the Jetwing Research Initiative. Dr. Nekaris continues to be in dialogue with many local researchers and assists them by the provision of technical literature, academic contacts, funding and other resources needed for research.
The book is in two parts, with the first part having a series of chapters which provides and overview of the social behaviour and ecology of primates.
The second part is a series of semitechnical species accounts on the five species of primates found in Sri Lanka. This includes three diurnal species, the Hanuman Langur, Toque Monkey and the Purple-faced Leaf Monkey. The last two species are endemic to the island. The Purple-faced Leaf Monkey has four sub-species, of which the Western Purple-faced Leaf Monkey is listed amongst the 25 most ewndangered primates in the world.
These critically endangered monkeys can still occasionally be seen in central Colombo although sites such as Talangama wetland on its suburbs offer a better chance of seeing it. wwThe photography for the book was undertaken by wildlife celebrity Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, who is a brand ambassador for Canon in Sri Lanka. He shoots exclusively on Canon professional equipment.
The book can be downloaded on http://www.srilanka. travel/pdf/broucher/primates Canon.pdf or on http://www.metropolitan.lk/newsGroup.aspx |
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