DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjcb
title: What does it mean to be wild? Assessing human influence on the environments of nonhuman primate specimens in museum collections

description: Natural history collections are often thought to represent environments in
 a pristine natural state, free from human intervention – the so-called
 “wild”. In this study, we aim to assess the level of human influence
 represented by natural history collections of wild-collected primates over
 120 years at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural
 History (NMNH). Our sample consisted of 875 catarrhine primate
 specimens in NMNH collections, representing 13 genera collected in 39
 countries from 1882 to 2004. Using archival and accession information, we
 determined the approximate locations from which specimens were collected.
 We then plotted location coordinates onto publicly available anthrome maps
 created by Ellis et al. (2010), which delineate terrestrial biomes of
 human population density and land use worldwide since the 1700s. We found
 that among primates collected from their native ranges, 92% were from an
 environment that had some level of human impact, suggesting that the
 majority of presumed wild-collected primate specimens lived in an
 environment influenced by humans during their lifetimes. The degree to
 which human-modified environments may have impacted the lives of primates
 currently held in museum collections has been historically ignored,
 implicating unforeseen consequences for collections-based research. While
 unique effects related to commensalism with humans remain understudied,
 effects currently attributed to natural phenomena may, in fact, be related
 to anthropogenic pressures on unmanaged populations of primates.
description: <strong>Sample</strong>
 The study sample consisted of 875 specimens
 of nonhuman catarhine primates. These specimens are part of collections
 held by the Mammals Division of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at
 the National Musuem of Natural History (NMNH), representing specimens
 collected in 39 countries over more than 120 years (1882-2004). All
 specimens were recorded as having been "wild collected" in NMNH
 accession records. The sample contained 13 catarrhine genera, including
 344 individuals from secen genera of apes (Bunopithecus, Gorilla,
 Hylobates, Nomascus, Pan, Pongo, and Symphalangus), and 531 individuals
 from six genera of cercopithecine monkeys (Allenopithecus, Cercopithecus,
 Chlorocebus, Erythrocebus, Macaca, and Papio). <strong>Methods</strong>
 We utilized the anthrome global biome maps
 published by Ellis et al. (2010), showing a terrestrial classification
 range based on human population density and land use, derived largely from
 archaeological and ecological data sources. Configurations of
 anthropogenic landscape changes were assessed globally across terestrial
 biomes at 5' resolution (Ellis et al., 2010). Anthrome distribution
 was determined by combining potential vegetation makes (Ramankutty and
 Foley, 1999) with anthrome maps (Ellis and Ramankutty, 2008) at century
 intervals from 1700 to 2000, using overlay analysis. Anthromes are
 classified into 19 distinct types and grouped into common land-use
 schemes: dense settlements, villages, croplands, rangelands, seminatural
 areas, and wildlands. Data are provided for the 19th - 21st centuries
 across the vast majority of known terrestrial biomes for anthrome type
 descriptions (Ellis et al., 2010); all spatial data are publically
 available for download (http://ecotype.org/anthrome/v2). Using the software tools of QGIS (Version 3.16,
 QGIS Development Team, 2021), collection points for each specimens and the
 anthrome map layers were imported into a single map for each relevant
 century interval. Based on the year of acquisition, primate specimens were
 grouped into the 19th, 20th, or 21st century anthrome map. From QGIS,
 specimens and corresponding anthrome data were exported into MS Excel
 (2021, v. 16.47.1) for analysis. <strong>Sources</strong>
 Ellis, E.C. & Ramankutty, N., 2008.
 Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Frontiers in
 Ecology and the Environment, 6, pp. 439–447. Ellis, E. C., Klein Goldewijk, K., Siebert, S.,
 Lightman, D., & Ramankutty, N., 2010. Anthropogenic transformation
 of the biomes, 1700 to 2000. Global ecology and biogeography, 19(5), pp.
 589-606. Ramankutty, N. &
 Foley, J.A., 1999. Estimating historical changes in global land cover:
 croplands from 1700 to 1992. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 13, pp.
 997–1027.
description: <strong>File 1: </strong>Complete dataset of
 specimens included in study with anthrome groups and types (Eller et al
 2021_NHPAnthrome_clean(1).xlsx <strong>File
 2:</strong> Map files (anthromes; zip folder [TIF];
 anthromes_2_GEOTIFF) <strong>File
 3:</strong> Map files (anthromes [PDF]; 1800s
 emphasis.pdf) <strong>File 4:</strong> Map
 files (anthromes [qgz]; 1800.qgz) <strong>File
 5:</strong> Map files (anthromes [PDF]; 1900s
 emphasis.pdf) <strong>File 6:</strong> Map
 files (anthromes [qgz]; 1900.qgz) <strong>File
 7:</strong> Map files (anthromes [PDF]; 2000s
 emphasis.pdf) <strong>File 8</strong>: Map
 files (anthromes [gqz]; 2000.qgz) <strong>File 9.
 </strong>Anthrome colors.cir <strong>File
 10.</strong> Apes Map Apr14.kmz
 <strong>File 11. </strong>Monkeys Map
 Apr14.kmz