Chimp & See Talk

Guns, germs, and trees determine density and distribution of gorillas and chimpanzees in Western Equatorial Africa

  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    a new giant collaborative paper come out updating the number of central chimps and western lowland gorillas thought to still be around

    http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaar2964

    In the study 'Guns, germs and trees determine density and distribution of gorillas and chimpanzees in Western Equatorial Africa', gorilla abundance is estimated to be 361,900 and chimpanzee abundance 128,700 individuals. This is certainly much higher than previous estimates. To put the results into context of an earlier study: the annual decline rate of apes in Gabon between 1984 and 2003 was about 4.3%, in the recent study period decline rate was estimated to be 1.8% (2.6% for gorillas, no decline observed for chimpanzees). This reduction in decline rate is good news!
    Key factors for high ape densities were effective law enforcement, presence of taboos against eating apes, intact forests and remoteness, ape densities were low in areas of Ebola occurrence and when human impact was high.

    Future threats to apes in the region will be the establishment of development and infrastructure corridors, ongoing timber extraction and demand for bushmeat. In Gabon there are major efforts to coordinate landuse planning, by e.g. using already depleted areas along major roads for siting oil palm and rubber plantations.

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Here's a great video about it from WCS: https://www.facebook.com/TheWCS/videos/2065820273431476/

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  • Boleyn by Boleyn moderator

    Thanks for this, Mimi!

    Certainly good news but we will not party before the numers actually go up!

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