Effects of Land cover change on Great Apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding Forest Management Units, South-East Cameroon. A 13 year time series analysis

Abstract

Understanding the effects of land cover change on wildlife distribution is very important for resource management and conservation planning. This paper aimed at detecting the effects of land cover change on great apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its bounded forest management units (FMUs). Data on great ape nests were collected in the field for the years 2001 and 2014 through distance sampling with line transects. Landsat TM images of South-East Cameroon for the years 2001 and 2014 were acquired from earth explorer and corrected atmospherically for proper visualization. An area of interest comprising the Lobéké National Park and its FMUs was extracted for classification and change detection. A comparison in great apes nest distribution and change per land cover change category was done for both years through point pattern analysis, whereas a time series analysis of the detected land cover change impacts on great apes nest distribution for a period of 13 years was modeled using logistic growth and regression equations in Vensim 7.2. The results could illustrate that, as land cover changes from one cover type in 2001 to another in 2014, increases or decreases in great apes nests were observed within each changed area.

A multi-disciplinary comparison of great ape gut microbiota in a central African forest and European zoo

“…Living conditions. The published literature on which we relied shows that sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa tend to occupy different habitats: chimpanzees primarily inhabit mixed mature forests with closed canopies, whereas gorillas live in open canopy forests with dense herbaceous vegetation [36][37][38][39] . In our study region, however, our Cameroonian informants living in close proximity to great apes added that both species ranged near villages, in mosaics of cultivated land and young forest regrowth.…”

Mapping suitable great ape habitat in and around the Lobéké National Park, South‐East Cameroon

“…Both the national park and FMUs are covered by 3 categories of habitats, including dense or mature primary forests, swampy forests, and grasslands or lowland vegetation (Yuh et al., 2019). Within these habitat categories are found a large variety of plant and animal species.…”

“…Human disturbance predictors comprised mainly of hunting, deforested areas, distance to roads, distance to built‐up areas, and population density (Plumptre et al., 2010; Strindberg et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2018). Landscape predictors comprised primarily of topography (aspect, slope, and elevation), distance to water bodies, forest cover (dense forest and swampy forest), and grassland vegetation (e.g., Fitzgerald et al., 2017; Yuh et al., 2019). Bioclimatic predictors comprised mainly of mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, maximum temperature of the warmest month, minimum temperature of the coldest month, precipitation of driest month, precipitation of wettest month, seasonal temperature, and seasonal precipitations (Franklin, 2010; Mantyka‐Pringle et al., 2012; Manzoor et al., 2018; Molloy et al., 2013; Phillips et al., 2006).…”

“…Furthermore, datasets for deforestation, swampy forests, and dense forests were selected for the year 2015. We used these datasets for the year 2015 because studies by Yuh et al, (2019) predictive accuracies and best model performances. We thus found strong correlations between pairs of predictors, that is, between grassland and hunting pressure, and between distance to roads and distance to built-up areas (Table S1).…”

“…Dense forests cover over 58% of the entire study area, while swampy forests represent about 40%, totaling 98% forest cover (Yuh et al, 2019). The forests of this area are therefore entirely intact and are thus highly suitable for both species.…”