ABSTRACTAimModelling African great ape distribution has until now focused on current or past cond... more ABSTRACTAimModelling African great ape distribution has until now focused on current or past conditions, whilst future scenarios remain scarcely explored. Using an ensemble forecasting approach, we predicted changes in taxon-specific distribution under future scenarios of climate, land-use and human population changes.LocationSub-Saharan AfricaMethodsWe compiled occurrence data on African ape populations from the IUCN A.P.E.S. database and extracted relevant human-, climate- and habitat-related predictors representing current and future (2050) conditions to predict taxon-specific distribution under a best- and a worst-case scenario, using ensemble forecasting. Given the large effect on model predictions, we further tested algorithm sensitivity by considering default and non-default modelling options. The latter included interactions between predictors and polynomial terms in correlative algorithms.ResultsThe future distributions of gorilla and bonobo populations are likely to be dir...
AimPaleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates may have sha... more AimPaleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates may have shaped present-day biodiversity. We hypothesize that habitat stability in historical Afrotropical refugia played a major role in the habitat suitability and persistence of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) during the late Quaternary. We aimed to build a dynamic model of changing habitat suitability for chimpanzees at fine spatio-temporal scales to provide a new resource for understanding their ecology, behaviour and evolution.LocationAfrotropics.TaxonChimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), including all four subspecies (P. t. verus, P. t. ellioti, P. t. troglodytes, P. t. schweinfurthii).MethodsWe used downscaled bioclimatic variables representing monthly temperature and precipitation estimates, historical human population density data and an extensive database of georeferenced presence points to infer chimpanzee habitat suitability at 62 paleoclimatic time periods across the Afrotropics based on ensembl...
Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their h... more Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework. The Conservation Evidence project has summarized thousands of studies testing conservation interventions and compiled these as synopses for various habitats and taxa. In the present article, we analyzed the interventions assessed in the primate synopsis and compared these with other taxa. We found that despite intensive efforts to study primates and the extensive threats they face, less than 1% of primate studies evaluated conservation effectiveness. The studies often lacked quantitative data, failed to undertake postimplementation monitoring of populations or individuals, or implemented several interventions at once. Furthermore, the studies were biased toward specific taxa, geographic regions, and interventions. We describe ba...
The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the recor... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxon... more Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxonomic and spatial 2 data gaps persist at the scale relevant to planning conservation interventions. This is because data collectors are 3 hesitant to share data with global repositories due to workload, lack of incentives, and perceived risk of losing 4 intellectual property rights. In contrast, due to greater conceptual and methodological proximity, taxon-specific 5 database initiatives can provide more direct benefits to data collectors through research collaborations and shared 6 authorship. The IUCN SSC Ape Populations, Environments and Surveys (A.P.E.S.) database was created in 2005 as a 7 repository for data on great apes and other primate taxa. It aims to acquire field survey data and make different types of 8 data accessible, and provide up-to-date species status information. To support the current update of the conservation 9 action plan for western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) we compiled field surveys for this taxon from IUCN SSC 10 A.P.E.S., 75% of which were unpublished. We used spatial modeling to infer total population size, range-wide density 11 distribution, population connectivity and landscape-scale metrics. We estimated a total abundance of 52,800 (95% CI 12 17,577-96,564) western chimpanzees, of which only 17% occurred in national parks. We also found that 10% of 13 chimpanzees live within 25 km of four multinational "development corridors" currently planned for West Africa. 14 These large infrastructure projects aim to promote economic integration and agriculture expansion, but are likely to 15 cause further habitat loss and reduce population connectivity. We close by demonstrating the wealth of conservation-16 relevant information derivable from a taxon-specific database like IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. and propose that a network of 17 many more such databases could be created to provide the essential information to conservation that can neither be 18 supplied by one-off projects nor by global repositories, and thus are highly complementary to existing initiatives. 19
The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the recor... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
Despite being important conservation tools, tourism and research may cause transmission of pathog... more Despite being important conservation tools, tourism and research may cause transmission of pathogens to wild great apes. Investigating respiratory disease outbreaks in wild bonobos, we identified human respiratory syncytial virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae as causative agents. A One Health approach to disease control should become part of great ape programs.
Heinicke et al. Positive Deviants in Chimpanzee Populations social-ecological configurations: fir... more Heinicke et al. Positive Deviants in Chimpanzee Populations social-ecological configurations: first, rainforest habitats with a low degree of human impact, second, steep areas, and third, areas with high prevalence of hunting taboos and low degree of human impact. The largest chimpanzee populations are nowadays found under the third social-ecological configuration, even though most of these areas are not officially protected. Most commonly chimpanzee conservation has been based on exclusion of threats by creation of protected areas and law enforcement. Our findings suggest, however, that this approach should be complemented by an additional focus on threat reduction, i.e., interventions that directly target individual human behavior that is most threatening to chimpanzees, which is hunting. Although changing human behavior is difficult, stakeholder co-designed behavioral change approaches developed in the social sciences have been used successfully to promote pro-environmental behavior. With only a fraction of chimpanzees and primates living inside protected areas, such new approaches might be a way forward to improve primate conservation.
African large mammals are under extreme pressure from unsustainable hunting and habitat loss. Cer... more African large mammals are under extreme pressure from unsustainable hunting and habitat loss. Certain traits make large mammals particularly vulnerable. These include late age at first reproduction, long inter-birth intervals, and low population density. Great apes are a prime example of such vulnerability, exhibiting all of these traits. Here we assess the rate of population change for the western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, over a 24-year period. As a proxy for change in abundance, we used transect nest count data from 20 different sites archived in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database, representing 25,000 of the estimated remaining 35,000 western chimpanzees. For each of the 20 sites, datasets for 2 different years were available. We estimated site-specific and global population change using Generalized Linear Models. At 12 of these sites, we detected a significant negative trend. The estimated change in the subspecies abundance, as approximated by nest encounter rate, yielded a...
Pneumoviruses have been identified as causative agents in several respiratory disease outbreaks i... more Pneumoviruses have been identified as causative agents in several respiratory disease outbreaks in habituated wild great apes. Based on phylogenetic evidence, transmission from humans is likely. However, the pathogens have never been detected in the local human population prior to or at the same time as an outbreak. Here, we report the first simultaneous detection of a human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) infection in western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and in the local human population at a field program in the Central African Republic. A total of 15 gorilla and 15 human fecal samples and 80 human throat swabs were tested for HRSV, human metapneumovirus, and other respiratory viruses. We were able to obtain identical sequences for HRSV A from four gorillas and four humans. In contrast, we did not detect HRSV or any other classic human respiratory virus in gorilla fecal samples in two other outbreaks in the same field program. Enterovirus sequences were detected but the implication of these viruses in the etiology of these outbreaks remains speculative. Our findings of HRSV in wild but human-habituated gorillas underline, once again, the risk of interspecies transmission from humans to endangered great apes.
Conservation in the 21st Century: Gorillas as a Case Study, 2008
... Christophe Boesch, Claude Gnakouri, Luis Marques, Grégoire Nohon, Ilka Herbinger, Francis Lau... more ... Christophe Boesch, Claude Gnakouri, Luis Marques, Grégoire Nohon, Ilka Herbinger, Francis Lauginie, Hedwige Boesch, Séverin Kouamé, Moustapha Traoré, and Francis ... Once she has died, they continue to try to provoke reactions from her body, chase the flies away, and ...
Intercommunity aggression in chimpanzees and primitive warfare in humans possess striking similar... more Intercommunity aggression in chimpanzees and primitive warfare in humans possess striking similarities, such as the common occurrence of large male coalitions, systematic control of territory boundaries, and lethal attacks on isolated individuals from neighboring groups. However, an important apparent contrast is the absence of recurrent peaceful interactions between neighboring groups of chimpanzees. We observed a remarkable range of behavior in
Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natura... more Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natural resources. However, significant threats from anthropogenic activities and decline of wildlife populations persist, while conservation efforts in most PAs are still minimal. We assessed the impact level of the most common threats to wildlife within PAs in tropical Africa and the relationship of conservation activities with threat impact level. We collated data on 98 PAs with tropical forest cover from 15 countries across West, Central and East Africa. For this, we assembled information about local threats as well as conservation activities from published and unpublished literature, and questionnaires sent to long-term field workers. We constructed general linear models to test the significance of specific conservation activities in relation to the threat impact level. Subsistence and commercial hunting were identified as the most common direct threats to wildlife and found to be most prevalent in West and Central Africa. Agriculture and logging represented the most common indirect threats, and were most prevalent in West Africa. We found that the long-term presence of conservation activities (such as law enforcement, research and tourism) was associated with lower threat impact levels. Our results highlight deficiencies in the management effectiveness of several PAs across tropical Africa, and conclude that PA management should invest more into conservation activities with long-term duration.
Table S1. List of the 109 RMAs and the latest year of ape record. The management 2 category of th... more Table S1. List of the 109 RMAs and the latest year of ape record. The management 2 category of these RMAs differs in and among different countries (similar categories names 3 among different countries often do not imply that they share same management objectives). 4 Country RMA Category
ABSTRACTAimModelling African great ape distribution has until now focused on current or past cond... more ABSTRACTAimModelling African great ape distribution has until now focused on current or past conditions, whilst future scenarios remain scarcely explored. Using an ensemble forecasting approach, we predicted changes in taxon-specific distribution under future scenarios of climate, land-use and human population changes.LocationSub-Saharan AfricaMethodsWe compiled occurrence data on African ape populations from the IUCN A.P.E.S. database and extracted relevant human-, climate- and habitat-related predictors representing current and future (2050) conditions to predict taxon-specific distribution under a best- and a worst-case scenario, using ensemble forecasting. Given the large effect on model predictions, we further tested algorithm sensitivity by considering default and non-default modelling options. The latter included interactions between predictors and polynomial terms in correlative algorithms.ResultsThe future distributions of gorilla and bonobo populations are likely to be dir...
AimPaleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates may have sha... more AimPaleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates may have shaped present-day biodiversity. We hypothesize that habitat stability in historical Afrotropical refugia played a major role in the habitat suitability and persistence of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) during the late Quaternary. We aimed to build a dynamic model of changing habitat suitability for chimpanzees at fine spatio-temporal scales to provide a new resource for understanding their ecology, behaviour and evolution.LocationAfrotropics.TaxonChimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), including all four subspecies (P. t. verus, P. t. ellioti, P. t. troglodytes, P. t. schweinfurthii).MethodsWe used downscaled bioclimatic variables representing monthly temperature and precipitation estimates, historical human population density data and an extensive database of georeferenced presence points to infer chimpanzee habitat suitability at 62 paleoclimatic time periods across the Afrotropics based on ensembl...
Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their h... more Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework. The Conservation Evidence project has summarized thousands of studies testing conservation interventions and compiled these as synopses for various habitats and taxa. In the present article, we analyzed the interventions assessed in the primate synopsis and compared these with other taxa. We found that despite intensive efforts to study primates and the extensive threats they face, less than 1% of primate studies evaluated conservation effectiveness. The studies often lacked quantitative data, failed to undertake postimplementation monitoring of populations or individuals, or implemented several interventions at once. Furthermore, the studies were biased toward specific taxa, geographic regions, and interventions. We describe ba...
The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the recor... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxon... more Even though information on global biodiversity trends becomes increasingly available, large taxonomic and spatial 2 data gaps persist at the scale relevant to planning conservation interventions. This is because data collectors are 3 hesitant to share data with global repositories due to workload, lack of incentives, and perceived risk of losing 4 intellectual property rights. In contrast, due to greater conceptual and methodological proximity, taxon-specific 5 database initiatives can provide more direct benefits to data collectors through research collaborations and shared 6 authorship. The IUCN SSC Ape Populations, Environments and Surveys (A.P.E.S.) database was created in 2005 as a 7 repository for data on great apes and other primate taxa. It aims to acquire field survey data and make different types of 8 data accessible, and provide up-to-date species status information. To support the current update of the conservation 9 action plan for western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) we compiled field surveys for this taxon from IUCN SSC 10 A.P.E.S., 75% of which were unpublished. We used spatial modeling to infer total population size, range-wide density 11 distribution, population connectivity and landscape-scale metrics. We estimated a total abundance of 52,800 (95% CI 12 17,577-96,564) western chimpanzees, of which only 17% occurred in national parks. We also found that 10% of 13 chimpanzees live within 25 km of four multinational "development corridors" currently planned for West Africa. 14 These large infrastructure projects aim to promote economic integration and agriculture expansion, but are likely to 15 cause further habitat loss and reduce population connectivity. We close by demonstrating the wealth of conservation-16 relevant information derivable from a taxon-specific database like IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. and propose that a network of 17 many more such databases could be created to provide the essential information to conservation that can neither be 18 supplied by one-off projects nor by global repositories, and thus are highly complementary to existing initiatives. 19
The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the recor... more The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of the record. Please see the repository URL above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription.
Despite being important conservation tools, tourism and research may cause transmission of pathog... more Despite being important conservation tools, tourism and research may cause transmission of pathogens to wild great apes. Investigating respiratory disease outbreaks in wild bonobos, we identified human respiratory syncytial virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae as causative agents. A One Health approach to disease control should become part of great ape programs.
Heinicke et al. Positive Deviants in Chimpanzee Populations social-ecological configurations: fir... more Heinicke et al. Positive Deviants in Chimpanzee Populations social-ecological configurations: first, rainforest habitats with a low degree of human impact, second, steep areas, and third, areas with high prevalence of hunting taboos and low degree of human impact. The largest chimpanzee populations are nowadays found under the third social-ecological configuration, even though most of these areas are not officially protected. Most commonly chimpanzee conservation has been based on exclusion of threats by creation of protected areas and law enforcement. Our findings suggest, however, that this approach should be complemented by an additional focus on threat reduction, i.e., interventions that directly target individual human behavior that is most threatening to chimpanzees, which is hunting. Although changing human behavior is difficult, stakeholder co-designed behavioral change approaches developed in the social sciences have been used successfully to promote pro-environmental behavior. With only a fraction of chimpanzees and primates living inside protected areas, such new approaches might be a way forward to improve primate conservation.
African large mammals are under extreme pressure from unsustainable hunting and habitat loss. Cer... more African large mammals are under extreme pressure from unsustainable hunting and habitat loss. Certain traits make large mammals particularly vulnerable. These include late age at first reproduction, long inter-birth intervals, and low population density. Great apes are a prime example of such vulnerability, exhibiting all of these traits. Here we assess the rate of population change for the western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, over a 24-year period. As a proxy for change in abundance, we used transect nest count data from 20 different sites archived in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database, representing 25,000 of the estimated remaining 35,000 western chimpanzees. For each of the 20 sites, datasets for 2 different years were available. We estimated site-specific and global population change using Generalized Linear Models. At 12 of these sites, we detected a significant negative trend. The estimated change in the subspecies abundance, as approximated by nest encounter rate, yielded a...
Pneumoviruses have been identified as causative agents in several respiratory disease outbreaks i... more Pneumoviruses have been identified as causative agents in several respiratory disease outbreaks in habituated wild great apes. Based on phylogenetic evidence, transmission from humans is likely. However, the pathogens have never been detected in the local human population prior to or at the same time as an outbreak. Here, we report the first simultaneous detection of a human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) infection in western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and in the local human population at a field program in the Central African Republic. A total of 15 gorilla and 15 human fecal samples and 80 human throat swabs were tested for HRSV, human metapneumovirus, and other respiratory viruses. We were able to obtain identical sequences for HRSV A from four gorillas and four humans. In contrast, we did not detect HRSV or any other classic human respiratory virus in gorilla fecal samples in two other outbreaks in the same field program. Enterovirus sequences were detected but the implication of these viruses in the etiology of these outbreaks remains speculative. Our findings of HRSV in wild but human-habituated gorillas underline, once again, the risk of interspecies transmission from humans to endangered great apes.
Conservation in the 21st Century: Gorillas as a Case Study, 2008
... Christophe Boesch, Claude Gnakouri, Luis Marques, Grégoire Nohon, Ilka Herbinger, Francis Lau... more ... Christophe Boesch, Claude Gnakouri, Luis Marques, Grégoire Nohon, Ilka Herbinger, Francis Lauginie, Hedwige Boesch, Séverin Kouamé, Moustapha Traoré, and Francis ... Once she has died, they continue to try to provoke reactions from her body, chase the flies away, and ...
Intercommunity aggression in chimpanzees and primitive warfare in humans possess striking similar... more Intercommunity aggression in chimpanzees and primitive warfare in humans possess striking similarities, such as the common occurrence of large male coalitions, systematic control of territory boundaries, and lethal attacks on isolated individuals from neighboring groups. However, an important apparent contrast is the absence of recurrent peaceful interactions between neighboring groups of chimpanzees. We observed a remarkable range of behavior in
Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natura... more Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natural resources. However, significant threats from anthropogenic activities and decline of wildlife populations persist, while conservation efforts in most PAs are still minimal. We assessed the impact level of the most common threats to wildlife within PAs in tropical Africa and the relationship of conservation activities with threat impact level. We collated data on 98 PAs with tropical forest cover from 15 countries across West, Central and East Africa. For this, we assembled information about local threats as well as conservation activities from published and unpublished literature, and questionnaires sent to long-term field workers. We constructed general linear models to test the significance of specific conservation activities in relation to the threat impact level. Subsistence and commercial hunting were identified as the most common direct threats to wildlife and found to be most prevalent in West and Central Africa. Agriculture and logging represented the most common indirect threats, and were most prevalent in West Africa. We found that the long-term presence of conservation activities (such as law enforcement, research and tourism) was associated with lower threat impact levels. Our results highlight deficiencies in the management effectiveness of several PAs across tropical Africa, and conclude that PA management should invest more into conservation activities with long-term duration.
Table S1. List of the 109 RMAs and the latest year of ape record. The management 2 category of th... more Table S1. List of the 109 RMAs and the latest year of ape record. The management 2 category of these RMAs differs in and among different countries (similar categories names 3 among different countries often do not imply that they share same management objectives). 4 Country RMA Category
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