The distribution of plant consumption traits across habitat types and the patterns of fruit availability suggest a mechanism of coexistence of two sympatric frugivorous mammals

Understanding the mechanisms governing the coexistence of organisms is an important question in ecology, and providing potential solutions contributes to conservation science. In this study, we evaluated the contribution of several mechanisms to the coexistence of two sympatric frugivores, using western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in a tropical rainforest of southeast Cameroon as a model system. We collected great ape fecal samples to determine and classify fruit species consumed; we conducted great ape nest surveys to evaluate seasonal patterns of habitat use; and we collected botanical data to investigate the distribution of plant species across habitat types in relation to their “consumption traits” (which indicate whether plants are preferred or fallback for either gorilla, chimpanzee, or both). We found that patterns of habitat use varied seasonally for both gorillas and chimpanzees and that gorilla and chimpanzee preferred and fallback fruits differed. Also, the distribution of plant consumption traits was influenced by habitat type and matched accordingly with the patterns of habitat use by gorillas and chimpanzees. We show that neither habitat selection nor fruit preference alone can explain the coexistence of gorillas and chimpanzees, but that considering together the distribution of plant consumption traits of fruiting woody plants across habitats as well as the pattern of fruit availability may contribute to explaining coexistence. This supports the assumptions of niche theory with dominant and subordinate species in heterogeneous landscapes, whereby a species may prefer nesting in habitats where it is less subject to competitive exclusion and where food availability is higher. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the contribution of plant consumption traits, seasonality, and habitat heterogeneity to enabling the coexistence of two sympatric frugivores

Using abundance and habitat variables to identify high conservation value areas for threatened mammals

The present study used abundance and habitat variables to design High Conservation Value Forests for wildlife protection. We considered great apes (Gorilla gorilla gorilla and Pan troglodytes troglodytes) as model species, and we used nest surveys, dietary analysis and botanical inventories to evaluate whether the traditional methods that use abundance data alone were consistent with the survival of the species. We assumed that setting a local priority area for animal conservation can be made possible if at least one variable (abundance or habitat variables) is spatially clustered and that the final decision for a species may depend on the pattern of spatial association between abundance, nesting habitat and feeding habitat. We used Kernel Density Estimation to evaluate the spatial pattern of each biological variable. The results indicate that all three variables were spatially clustered for both gorillas and chimpanzees. The abundance variables of both animal species were spatially correlated to their preferred nesting habitat variables. But while the chimpanzee feeding habitat variable was spatially correlated to the abundance and nesting habitat variables, the same pattern was not observed for gorillas. We then proposed different methods to be considered to design local priority areas for the conservation of each great ape species. Alone, the abundance variable does not successfully represent the spatial distribution of major biological requirements for the survival of wildlife species; we, therefore, recommend the integration of the spatial distribution of their food resources to overcome the mismatch caused by the existence of a biological interaction between congeneric species

3) Phenological data

3-a) Date: the date of data collection 3-b) Month: the month in number 3-c) Season: Long dry season, long rainy season, short dry season, short rainy season 3-e) Plant ID: the unique identifier of each individual plant 3-f) Species: the scientific name of the species 3-g) Family: Family names 3-h) DBH: the diameter at breast height of the individual plant (in centimetre) 3-i) Basal area (in centimetre square) 3-j) Fruit score: 0 (none), 1 (few), 2 (many

5) Data from faecal analysis

5-a) Animal species (gorilla, chimpanzee) 5-b) Date of sample collection 5-c) Month of collection 5-d) Year of collection 5-e) Sample ID 5-f) Species name: The plant species name observed in the faecal sample 5-g) Family: The family name of the plant species found in the sample 5-h) Number of seeds in the faecal sampl

Data from: The distribution of plant consumption traits across habitat types and the patterns of fruit availability suggest a mechanism of coexistence of two sympatric frugivorous mammals

Understanding the mechanisms governing the coexistence of organisms is an important question in ecology, and providing potential solutions contributes to conservation science. In this study, we evaluated the contribution of several mechanisms to the coexistence of two sympatric frugivores, using western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in a tropical rainforest of southeast Cameroon as a model system. We collected great ape fecal samples to determine and classify fruit species consumed; we conducted great ape nest surveys to evaluate seasonal patterns of habitat use; and we collected botanical data to investigate the distribution of plant species across habitat types in relation to their “consumption traits” (which indicate whether plants are preferred or fallback for either gorilla, chimpanzee, or both). We found that patterns of habitat use varied seasonally for both gorillas and chimpanzees and that gorilla and chimpanzee preferred and fallback fruits differed. Also, the distribution of plant consumption traits was influenced by habitat type and matched accordingly with the patterns of habitat use by gorillas and chimpanzees. We show that neither habitat selection nor fruit preference alone can explain the coexistence of gorillas and chimpanzees, but that considering together the distribution of plant consumption traits of fruiting woody plants across habitats as well as the pattern of fruit availability may contribute to explaining coexistence. This supports the assumptions of niche theory with dominant and subordinate species in heterogeneous landscapes, whereby a species may prefer nesting in habitats where it is less subject to competitive exclusion and where food availability is higher. To our knowledge, our study is the first to investigate the contribution of plant consumption traits, seasonality, and habitat heterogeneity to enabling the coexistence of two sympatric frugivores

2) Mean weight of fruits and mean number of seeds for each species

2-a) Species: species names to the genus level, for genus with multiple species consumed by great apes 2-b) Family: the family name of the species 2-c) Mean weight per fruit for the species 2-d) Mean number of seeds per fruit for the species. NA: the seeds were uncountabl

1) Botanical data

Data collected on woody plant species found in faecal samples of gorillas and chimpanzees in 184 plots of 25 x 25 m in 2014. Data description 1-a) Plot ID: The unique code for each plot 1-b) Longitude: the longitude component of the geographical coordinates of the plots, in UTM 33 N 1-c) Latitude: the latitude component of the geographical coordinates of the plots, in UTM 33 N 1-d) Habitat type: vegetation characteristics of each plot. Values: Old secondary forest, Near primary forest, Young secondary forest, Swamp, Riparian forest 1-e) Plant ID: the unique identification of each individual plant 1-f) Plant form: Tree, liana, strangler (Ficus spp) 1-g) Species traits: the plant consumption traits indicating whether the species is preferred or fallback (see the main article, Table 2). Values: Preferred gorilla (preferred by gorillas only), Preferred chimpanzee (preferred by chimpanzee only), Preferred apes (preferred by both gorillas and chimpanzees), Fallback gorilla (fallback for gorillas only), Fallback apes (fallback for both gorillas and chimpanzees), UC (unclassified), NA (no species was found in the plot) 1-h) Scientific names genus level: the scientific names of the species, determined at the genus level in faecal samples for genus with several species consumed by great apes 1-i) Scientific names species level: the scientific names of species, determined at the species level, excepted for unidentified species 1-j) Family: the family names of species 1-k) DBH: the diameter at breast height of the individual plant (in centimetre

4) Great apes nest survey for habitat selection

Data collected by recording individual fresh nests from April 2009 to April 2010 on 20 – 6 km transects located at 300 m from each other. 4-a) Nest ID: the unique identifier of the nest 4-b) Species: the animal species (Gorilla, Chimpanzee) 4-c) Scientific name: the scientific name of the animal species (Gorilla gorilla gorilla, Pan troglodytes troglodytes) 4-d) Season: the season when the observation was made (Long dry season, long rainy season, short dry season, short rainy season) 4-e) Habitat type: Old secondary forest, Near primary forest, Young secondary forest, Swamp, Riparian forest, Light gap 4-f) Month: the month of observation 4-g) Year: the year of observatio

Identifying high conservation value areas for threatened mammals

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-017-1483-