Dr. Myron Shekelle began studying tarsiers in 1993, and his first grant proposal reviews came back with a comment, “Shekelle has outlined a career’s worth of work”. 28 years later he is approaching the answer to his first set of objectives: how many tarsier species are on Sulawesi and surrounding islands? When he began, textbooks often listed 1-3. Now the evidence is that there are 16 or more. As a member of the IUCN Red List, Species Survival Commission, Primate Specialist Group, he has the responsibility for the Red List assessments for all tarsiers, as well as all of the other primates from Sulawesi (26 assessments in all). Shekelle pioneered the use of systematic sampling of wild tarsier populations for genetic, acoustic, and morphologic data, and comparing those results with regional biogeographic patterns. Thus, his is an integrated research and conservation program that begins with field surveys, continues through to the naming of the new taxa, and then writing the conservation assessments for them all. Currently based in Bellingham, Washington, where he is an Instructor and Research Associate in Biology at Western Washington University, he has spent more than 14 years living and working in Indonesia, including more than 10 in Indonesia, with additional years in Singapore and Korea.
Rercording:
https://youtu.be/ZerotaVKFAQ