A rough indicator of chimpanzee resilience should be their population density. Anti-poaching strategies, chimpanzee behavioral flexibility, and adaptability to environmental changes could be the main factors influencing their resilience and future capacity for long-term survival.
Among them, the chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes) is classified on the IUCN red list as endangered and has shown a capacity to intermittently cope with human activities, in the context of increasing proximity between wildlife and human populations. Our closest relatives, the great apes, are threatened, facing decline of their suitable habitats. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.įactors described as unfavorable to endangered species density, such as habitat fragmentation or anthropogenic activities presence, are not necessarily limiting long-term co-existence of wildlife with human activities. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: Field trips have been granted by the National Museum of Natural History/ATM 16, ANR JC-JC SAFAPE, Projet pour la Conservation des Grands Singes and Société Francophone de Primatologie. Received: FebruAccepted: JPublished: July 17, 2014Ĭopyright: © 2014 Bortolamiol et al. PLoS ONE 9(7):Įditor: Cédric Sueur, Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, France (2014) Suitable Habitats for Endangered Frugivorous Mammals: Small-Scale Comparison, Regeneration Forest and Chimpanzee Density in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Ficus species provided a relatively consistent supply of food for chimpanzees throughout the year, and we suggest that this could help to explain the unusually high density of chimpanzees in such a disturbed site.Ĭitation: Bortolamiol S, Cohen M, Potts K, Pennec F, Rwaburindore P, Kasenene J, et al. Among feeding trees, Ficus species are particularly important resources for chimpanzees at Sebitoli, where their basal area is higher than at Kanywara or Ngogo. While species functional classes consumed by Sebitoli chimpanzees (foods eaten during periods of high or low fruit abundance) differ from the two other sites, Sebitoli is very similar to Kanyawara in terms of land-cover and consumed species. Due to the distance between sites, spatial and temporal fruit abundance in Sebitoli was expected to be more similar to Kanyawara than to Ngogo. Because of the post-logging regenerating status of the forest in Sebitoli and Kanyawara, smaller basal area (BA) of fruiting trees most widely consumed by the chimpanzees in Kanyawara and Sebitoli was expected compared to Ngogo (not logged commercially). Spatial and temporal patterns of fruit availability were recorded over 18 months at Sebitoli (a site of intermediate chimpanzee density and higher anthropic pressure) with the aim of understanding the factors explaining chimpanzee density there, in comparison to results from two other sites, also in Kibale: Kanyawara (low chimpanzee density) and Ngogo (high density, and furthest from Sebitoli). Anthropogenic activities inside the park (past logging activities, current encroachment) and outside its limits (food and cash crops) may impact the amount and distribution of food resources for chimpanzees (frugivorous species) and their spatial distribution within the park. Landscape patterns and chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) densities in Kibale National Park show important variation among communities that are geographically close to one another (from 1.5 to 5.1 chimpanzees/km 2).
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