Bonobo habituation in a forest–savanna mosaic habitat: influence of ape species, habitat type, and sociocultural context

Abstract

Habituation is the term used to describe acceptance by wild animals of a human observer as a neutral element in their environment. Among primates, the process takes from a few days for Galago spp. to several years for African apes. There are also intraspecies differences reflecting differences in habitat, home range, and ape-human relationship history. Here, we present the first study of the process of bonobo habituation in a fragmented habitat, a forest-savanna mosaic in the community-based conservation area led by the Congolese nongovernmental organization Mbou-Mon-Tour, Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this area, local people use the forest almost every day for traditional activities but avoid bonobos because of a traditional taboo. Because very few flight reactions were observed during habituation, we focused on quantitative parameters to assess the development of ape tolerance and of the tracking efficiency of observer teams. During the 18-month study period (May 2012-October 2013), 4043 h (319 days) were spent in the forest and bonobos were observed for a total of 405 h (196 contacts on 134 days). The average contact duration was stable over time (124 min), but the minimal distance during a contact decreased with habituation effort. Moreover, bonobo location and tracking efficiency, daily ratio of contact time to habituation effort, and the number of observations at ground level were positively correlated with habituation effort. Our observations suggest that bonobos become habituated relatively rapidly. These results are discussed in relation to the habitat type, ape species, and the local sociocultural context of villagers. The habituation process involves changes in ape behavior toward observers and also more complex interactions concerning the ecosystem, including the building of an efficient local team. Before starting a habituation process, knowledge of the human sociocultural context is essential to assess the balance between risks and benefits.

Researchers' ethical concerns regarding habituating wild‐nonhuman primates and perceived ethical duties to their subjects: Results of an online survey

“…Individual animals can be stressed during habituation (Jack et al, 2008;McDougall, 2012), and, while stress levels may decrease over time, the long-term impact of human presence is not well understood (Bejder, Samuels, Whitehead, Finn, & Allen, 2009). Group composition may also be influenced by researcher presence (Narat, Pennec, Simmen, Ngawolo, & Krief, 2015;Sommer, Adanu, Faucher, & Fowler, 2003), as individual animals habituate at different rates and, thus, may join or separate themselves from the main group, potentially altering intragroup interactions.…”

“…One of the highestrated concerns was that trails may make subjects more vulnerable to poaching; however, less than half of participants reported reducing the number of trails at their study site. Alternatively, researchers may perceive the establishment of field sites to be an effective method of deterring poaching (Cranfield, 2008;Narat et al, 2015;Pusey et al, 2008)…”

Bonobo conservation as a means for local development: an innovative local initiative of community-based conservation in Democratic Republic of Congo.

“…Batéké people depend on the forest where they have a lot of activities, mainly slash-and-burn shifting agriculture, hunting, fishing and gathering (Table 1). After a first encounter with the NGO and the local people for a pilot study in 2008 (six weeks), VN and SK started with MMT a longterm research project on bonobos in 2010 in the Manzano forest, near the Embirima village ( Figure 2) [14,15]. From 2010 to 2013, five field campaigns (10 months in total) were conducted to habituate and study wild bonobos.…”

“…In the other sites, trackers worked voluntarily until 2012 and were then paid by MMT supported by recent partnerships with western zoos and environmental NGOs. Bonobo habituation is in process in Nkala and Mpelu sites (led by WWF) and at Embirima (led by VN and MMT) [15]. The sites of Mbee, Bodzuna and Makaa are only for the monitoring of bonobos in order to protect them but to avoid having more than three bonobo communities under a habituation process, as recommended by the IUCN [30].…”

“…conservation projects exist (500 km from the closest -Salonga National Park). Moreover, the habitat is composed by a forest-savanna mosaic, which is very rare in the bonobo distribution area [12][13][14][15][16]. Locally, the Batéké people respect a traditional eating-taboo concerning bonobos that they neither kill nor eat [13,14,17] and have shared their territory with them for centuries [18].…”