Challenges and conservation implications of the parrot trade in Cameroon

Humans in every culture exploit wildlife resources around them to satisfy their immediate needs using many different methods. Similarly, parrots are exploited in Cameroon in various ways, for both consumptive and non-consumptive uses, by many cultures there. Trading in parrots is the biggest form of wild bird exploitation, and it is carried out by both the public and the private sectors, to satisfy both local and international demands. This paper therefore examined the challenges and conservation implications of the parrot trade in Cameroon. Focus groups and ground research teams were used for data collection in the national territory. It was evident from the results that the main stakeholders in this trade were the government and the private sector, and the driving force behind the trade were unemployment and poverty. Primary sources of Grey Parrots were the three rainforest regions of Cameroon. The frequency of occurrence of the Grey Parrot in the trade exceeded the numbers of other parrot species traded. The future of the trade in Cameroon is not certain as some of its activities are not in harmony with modern approaches to sustainable wildlife conservation and management. These challenges form the basis of the debate on the consequences and conservation implications of the parrot trade in Cameroon

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

Vegetation mosaic and deer distribution in south Texas

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Bibliography: leaves 70-74.Not availabl

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Review of Bats of the Genus Pseudoromicia (chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) with the Description of a New Species

The Cameroon Volcanic Line, which divides the Congo Basin fauna from the West African fauna, is a known area of high endemism for various taxa, but the region’s bat fauna has received little attention. We review variation in morphological and molecular (mitochondrial Cytochrome b) characters in the Tropical African vespertilionid bat genus Pseudoromicia. Assessment of this variation indicates the existence of a new species of Pseudoromicia, from the Mbam Minkom Massif in the Centre Region of Cameroon. The new species is diagnosable by sequence data and is morphologically similar to its putative sister taxon, P. kityoi, from Uganda. Although we suggest that it be assigned to the IUCN category of Data Deficient, there should be some concern as to the conservation status of this species: the Mbam Minkom Massif ecosystem is threatened due to lack of legal conservation frameworks and exposure to increasing human pressure. The new species is in a clade with P. roseveari and P. kityoi. These three species may be relicts of a single widespread species originating in the West African “white-winged” group of Pseudoromicia that then spread east across the tropical moist broadleaf forest into East Africa, and are now restricted to a few upland rainforest patches in West Africa (P. roseveari), in outliers of the Cameroon Volcanic Line region (Pseudoromicia sp.), and the Lake Victoria area (P. kityoi). The smaller, white-winged species are hypothesized to be ancestral, with one extant putative species (P. rendalli) also extending into East and southern Africa (Van Cakenberghe & Happold, Citation2013). The larger, dark-winged taxa likely dispersed to East Africa and subsequently back to West Africa (e.g., Pseudoromicia sp., P. roseveari). Our data illustrate the potential importance of the Dahomey Gap and climatic changes in the evolution of this group of species