Challenges in the use of genetic mark-recapture to estimate the population size of Bwindi mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei)

Roy, Justin; Vigilant, Linda; Gray, Maryke; Wright, Edward; Kato, Raymond; Kabano, Peter; Basabose, Augustin Kanyunyi; Tibenda, Emmanuel; Kühl, Hjalmar S.; Robbins, Martha M.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2014.10.011

Cited by 45 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Fecal samples were collected between July 2009 and June 2013 from wild western lowland gorillas (G. g. gorilla) in Cameroon and Gabon, eastern lowland gorillas (G. beringei graueri) in the DRC, and mountain gorillas (G. b. beringei) in the DRC and Uganda. Most samples were collected around night nests and feeding sites, but also opportunistically (16,17,22,51). Samples were preserved in RNAlater (Ambion), kept at ambient temperature in the field for a maximum of 3 wk and then stored at −20°C or −80°C.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we have found evidence of SIVgor infection only in western lowland gorillas. We tested more than 100 (n = 115) mountain gorillas at two different field sites (Table S2) from a population that is thought to number now only about 900 individuals (22), and we found all to be SIVgor-negative. Similarly, we found no evidence of SIVgor infection in eastern lowland gorillas in this and a previous study (16).…”

Section: Sivgor In Gorillas Is Less Common and Widespread Than Sivcpz Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Origin of the HIV-1 group O epidemic in western lowland gorillas

D’arc

Ayouba

Esteban

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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HIV-1, the cause of AIDS, is composed of four phylogenetic lineages, groups M, N, O, and P, each of which resulted from an independent cross-species transmission event of simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) infecting African apes. Although groups M and N have been traced to geographically distinct chimpanzee communities in southern Cameroon, the reservoirs of groups O and P remain unknown. Here, we screened fecal samples from western lowland (n = 2,611), eastern lowland (n = 103), and mountain (n = 218) gorillas for gorilla SIV (SIVgor) antibodies and nucleic acids. Despite testing wild troops throughout southern Cameroon (n = 14), northern Gabon (n = 16), the Democratic Republic of Congo (n = 2), and Uganda (n = 1), SIVgor was identified at only four sites in southern Cameroon, with prevalences ranging from 0.8–22%. Amplification of partial and full-length SIVgor sequences revealed extensive genetic diversity, but all SIVgor strains were derived from a single lineage within the chimpanzee SIV (SIVcpz) radiation. Two fully sequenced gorilla viruses from southwestern Cameroon were very closely related to, and likely represent the source population of, HIV-1 group P. Most of the genome of a third SIVgor strain, from central Cameroon, was very closely related to HIV-1 group O, again pointing to gorillas as the immediate source. Functional analyses identified the cytidine deaminase APOBEC3G as a barrier for chimpanzee-to-gorilla, but not gorilla-to-human, virus transmission. These data indicate that HIV-1 group O, which spreads epidemically in west central Africa and is estimated to have infected around 100,000 people, originated by cross-species transmission from western lowland gorillas.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sivgor In Gorillas Is Less Common and Widespread Than Sivcpz Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of the HIV-1 group O epidemic in western lowland gorillas

D’arc

Ayouba

Esteban

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

134

149

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“…The developments of theoretical foundations, field applications and statistical procedures for data analysis have produced robust estimation methods, which have found very wide application across numerous animal taxa, ecosystems and regions. More recently genetic survey methods, mainly based on capture-mark-recapture techniques have extended the portfolio of available methods [2,66].…”

Section: Monitoring In Ecology Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As it requires highly variable parameters, such as the rate of nest production and decay, when converting ape nest density into individual ape density, it frequently only provides imprecise or even biased estimates [37,40,50,83]. More recently, promising results have been obtained by non-invasive genetic mark-recapture studies, demonstrating exceedingly precise estimates compared to traditional survey methods, [2,66,20], unambiguous differentiation between species [2], and no observer or site-specific biases [2,20]. However, such studies require high levels of expertise and may thus prove infeasible or prohibitively expensive [35,20].…”

Section: Monitoring In Ecology Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Automated Visual Monitoring of Individual Gorillas in the Wild

Brust

Burghardt

Groenenberg

et al. 2017

2017 IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops (ICCVW)

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In this paper we report on the context and evaluation of a system for an automatic interpretation of sightings of individual western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) as captured in facial fieldVisual data acquisition in the field often captures sufficient information to establish encounters with individual gorillas. However, relevant information is locked within the pixel patterns measured, usually requiring expert knowledge and time-consuming efforts for identification. Computer vision can help to extract gorilla identities by performing automated species detection, followed by individual facial identification. We show that standard deep learning models combined with a traditional SVM classifier can be used for this task. To assist encounter processing, predictions can be presented graphically with known population information as shown.

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“…The number of gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was estimated in 2006 and 2011 by means of ‘sweep’ census efforts to survey the entire park for detection of ‘nests’ constructed in the evening by individual gorillas (Guschanski et al 2009; Roy et al 2014). Dung left in the nests was collected for genetic analysis, and gorilla counts were based on a combination of nest count data and genetic data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dispersal and reproductive careers of male mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

et al. 2019

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Dispersal is a key event in the life of an animal and it influences individual reproductive success. Male mountain gorillas exhibit both philopatry and dispersal, resulting in a mixed one-male and multimale social organization. However, little is known about the relationship between male dispersal or philopatry and reproductive careers in Bwindi mountain gorillas. Here we analyze data spanning from 1993 to 2017 on social groups in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda to examine the proportion of males that disperse, age of dispersal, pathways to attaining alpha status, fate of dispersing males and philopatric males, and male tenure length as well as make comparisons of these variables to the Virunga mountain gorilla population. We report previously undocumented cases of dispersal by immature males and old males and we also observed the only known case of a fully mature male immigrating into a breeding group. We used genetic tracking of known individuals to estimate that a minimum of 25% of males that disperse to become solitary males eventually form new groups. No differences were found between the Bwindi and Virunga population in the age of male dispersal, the proportion of males that disperse, the age of alpha male acquisition, and dominance tenure length. The lack of differences may be due to small sample sizes or because the observed ecological variability does not lead to life history differences between the populations. Males in both populations follow variable strategies to attain alpha status leading to the variable one-male and multimale social organization, including dispersal to become solitary and eventually form a group, via group fissioning, usurping another alpha male, or inheriting the alpha position when a previous group leader dies.

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Challenges in the use of genetic mark-recapture to estimate the population size of Bwindi mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei)

Cited by 45 publications

References 41 publications

Origin of the HIV-1 group O epidemic in western lowland gorillas

Origin of the HIV-1 group O epidemic in western lowland gorillas

Towards Automated Visual Monitoring of Individual Gorillas in the Wild

Dispersal and reproductive careers of male mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

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