Talk:Golden-crowned sifaka/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Ucucha 06:34, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

I'll be reviewing this article, and will leave some comments over the next few days. Ucucha 06:34, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Please delay the review until I finish re-writing the last section and the lead, which I hope to do tonight. I wasn't ready for the GAC review just yet. If you want to get started before I'm done, you may start reviewing the first four sections, which should be mostly done. You may also give the article one of your thorough FAC-quality reviews, since I'll probably take it on to the next step following this. The biggest thing will be to see if I missed any major sources. – VisionHolder « talk » 11:18, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Alright... re-write is complete and the review may resume. I'm glad I revised the article before the review because it had several incorrect facts and some problems with NPOV. I admit that I need to add information about vocalizations from the 1988 Simons paper, but I'll do that either tomorrow or before submitting for FAC. – VisionHolder « talk » 00:45, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• Mention that Simons & co went to Daraina because the forest was going to be destroyed?
• Please tell the reader what a karyotype is, and what metacentric etc. mean.
• "Traditionally, it has been accepted that P. tattersalli was one of the three recognized species of sifakas, along with the Diademed Sifaka (P. diadema) and Verreaux's Sifaka (P. verreauxi). However, there have been conflicting studies regarding its taxonomic status."—you can hardly call a classification that began in 1988 "traditional". I wonder whether you can't just leave these sentences out; I don't think they add anything essential.
• gloss "craniodental"
• Description seems rather short.
• You say the fur is short, Garbutt says it is "moderately long".
• "prominent tufts of black fur"—the tufts themselves look yellow to me.
• Face doesn't completely lack fur, since there are white hairs on the cheeks (cf. Garbutt).
• "The Golden-crowned Sifaka faces very few natural threats, the most significant of which is predation."—what are the others?
• "Group density varied between 0.18 and 0.29 km² (18 and 29 ha) per group."—not clear what you mean there. Is this the home range per group? Also, converting from square kilometers to hectares is probably not what you wanted to do.
• "Due to its relatively large size however, the sifakas on the Eastern coast of Madagascar suffer lower predation pressure than other lemurs."—sentence doesn't scan well, and I'm not sure why the eastern coast should be mentioned specifically. Do you mean "Because of their relatively large size, sifakas suffer lower predation pressure than other lemurs."?
• "anogenital glands"—what?
• "cycle"—I think this is a little too cryptic, perhaps link to estrous cycle. Also, this sentence ("there is only one month in every twelve in which successfully reproducing females are likely to cycle and have the ability to conceive") doesn't agree too well with the statement later on that females reproduce every second year.
• No data on lifespan?
• Predation doesn't fit too well under "Behavior".
• "Its habitat has been reduced to only a small area in the northeastern portion of Madagascar."—this suggests its range was once significantly larger than the northeastern portion of Madagascar, which is quite likely false.
• You might be going a little off-topic in the paragraphs about conservation. Much is about forest destruction on Madagascar in general, rather than specifically about Propithecus tattersalli.
• "As of its 2008 assessment, the Golden-crowned Sifaka was elevated from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the IUCN Red List."—Critically Endangered is a higher rating of danger than Endangered, so I don't see how this is "elevated".

Ucucha 17:36, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• Might be useful to say when the wet and dry seasons are.

  All issues have been addressed to the best of my ability. I have not seen lifespan estimates, and I don't think the species has been studied well enough (or long enough) to know for certain. The description remains short, but that's all I have to work on from my sources. I have slightly expanded (and corrected) the details on its appearance, though. Sorry, I didn't proofread that section as thoroughly when I did the re-write. Otherwise, I found a few more details that I will try to add in tonight. If you see anything else, just let me know. Again, I plan to submit for FAC immediately following the GAC pass, so please spill it all now. And if you need more time, just say so.

  On a somber note, I just learned that the low wild population estimate on the DLC website (~300 individuals) is based on a current estimate, given the illegal poaching that has resulted from the political instability and illegal logging in Madagascar. I've asked the staff to update the wording to reflect that the number is an estimation, as well as why the number has dropped so much. When they do, I'll provide the update in the article. Unfortunately, no journal articles have been published regarding the specific effects of the lawlessness, so until studies can be carried out to assess the damage, we may not know how badly populations have crashed (or how many species have been lost) as a result. – VisionHolder « talk » 01:35, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

• Do you know the species of mite?
• "The Golden-crowned Sifaka has one of the smallest geographic ranges of all indriid lemur species."—you cite this to a 1997 paper, which is unconvincing since many new species of indriids have been recognized since then.

Ucucha 16:17, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

• That's why I said "one of", and not "the smallest" as the source said. Given the size of its range, I still think this statement is valid. Given the small area, extreme degradation, and severe forest fragmentation, I don't think you can get much smaller. As for the ear mite species, you'll have to send me the article. I was only able to work from the abstract. Also, I've defined the seasons. Sorry... I forgot that I mentioned it before the section on reproduction. – VisionHolder « talk » 20:07, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

  Missed the seasons. I sent the article, but it hardly even mentions the mites beside the abstract, so it's not of much use. I don't dispute the statement about the range is true, I just think it's not a good idea to cite it to an article written to a time when there were only six or so recognized indriid species, instead of 20 as there are now. From looking at the range maps in Garbutt, it seems only Propithecus perrieri comes close to this one in the smallness of its range, but some of the recently described eastern woolly lemurs also have very limited ranges. Perhaps put in an additional cite to "Lemur diversity in Madagascar", which gives the most recent range estimates (I believe). Ucucha 20:21, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

  That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. I'll do it now. I may also change the last picture in the article if I happen to have a picture of the species being poached. Unfortunately (or fortunately??) I think I only have pictures of other species being poached. Either way, as information slips out of Madagascar, such a picture will be important... especially if the population truly has crashed to several hundred individuals as the experts are suggesting. – VisionHolder « talk » 20:30, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

  OK, struck it. I still think you're going a bit off-topic in the conservation section, and it may be good to combine predators and the disease information into a "Predators and parasites" section or something similar. Ucucha 20:39, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

  I've moved the material to its own section. Feel free to rearrange pictures if you want. However, I don't see how the "Human interactions" section is off-topic. Everything discussed covers specific threats to this species, and whatever is used as "background information" is kept to a single sentence. For example, the conflict between human needs and conservation needs is very relevant in that area, and is important to understand in order to grasp the species' conservation situation. Goldmining is a threat that is specific to that area. Poaching is also a big problem in the region. Wood collection explains deforestation pressure, and problems caused by tavy explain the need to abandon grassland and cut into the forests for farmland. Is there something specific that you can point to that seems particularly off-topic? – VisionHolder « talk » 22:52, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

  I was thinking of the second paragraph in particular. On the other hand, it is cited to a source that specifically addresses this species, and relates to specific threats to this species, so I'll leave it. Ucucha 16:40, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

• Common names are not cited. Ucucha 16:40, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

  All names are now cited. – VisionHolder « talk » 21:21, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for all the changes and replies; I'm passing this as a GA now. Ucucha 05:08, 7 June 2010 (UTC)