Publicação
Chimpanzee use of space on a forest-agricultural mosaic at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau
| Resumo: | Continuous human population growth and increased fragmentation of natural habitats are leading to numerous non-human primate species living in proximity to human settlements. Like other non-human primates, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are frequently reported to inhabit human-influenced habitats. However, our understanding about chimpanzee behavioural adaptations to these habitats is still limited. This dissertation presents a cross-disciplinary approach to understand chimpanzee and human sympatry in a forest-agricultural mosaic habitat at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. The aim of this research is to examine the home range and habitat preference on this unhabituated and unstudied community of chimpanzees to better inform their long-term survival alongside local people. A set of interviews were done in order to understand local people’s perceptions toward chimpanzees, their agricultural activities, and use of forest resources. These data help to create a framework to understand the extent of human activities in the area. During the study period, there were high levels of human-influenced changes on the landscape due to slash-and-burn activities. Cashew seems to have an increasing value to human communities. However, human-chimpanzee interactions are considered ‘low-conflict’ due to local cultural beliefs towards chimpanzees and differential utilization of this cash crop by both species. A map of the study area was created showing a highly fragmented habitat, and a set of indirect (faeces, feeding traces, nest) and direct (opportunistic observations) chimpanzee signs were collected to understand this communities distribution. For the first time, two commonly used methods to calculate animal home range size (Minimum Convex Polygon and Kernel analysis) were used in an unhabituated chimpanzee community living in a human-influenced habitat. The data demonstrate that Kernel analysis gives more realistic results suggesting that Madina chimpanzee community has an estimated home range size of 8.93 Km2. The correlation of home range size and community size of different chimpanzee communities suggests that Madina chimpanzees may have a community size of about 48 individuals. These results show a relatively small home range and large community size, which suggests that Madina chimpanzees may currently be successfully exploiting this anthropogenic habitat. Analysis of the distribution of chimpanzee signs show higher levels of utilization of ‘natural’ habitats by the species. However, feeding trace distribution showed that orchards and young forest areas have similar levels of utilization by chimpanzees for foraging. Analysis of the feeding traces during the study period suggests that chimpanzees are feeding on similar proportions of cultivated and forest resources suggesting that chimpanzees are integrating cultivars into their feeding strategies. This may be caused by the relative tolerance shown by neighbouring human communities ii , despite chimpanzees likely perceiving elevated levels of the foraging risk in human environments. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) groves show high levels of utilization by chimpanzees, particularly for nesting, and this research confirms that the oil-palm an important resource for humans and chimpanzees. Despite the ‘low conflict’ interactions at Madina, the increasing monetary value of cashew may create more severe and permanent changes of the landscape and human perceptions toward chimpanzees are likely to change in the future. |
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| Autores principais: | Vieira, Wilson Filipe da Silva |
| Assunto: | Habitat preference Human-dominated habitat Home range Pan troglodytes Território Preferência de habitat Habitat antropogénico |
| Ano: | 2018 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Resumo: | Continuous human population growth and increased fragmentation of natural habitats are leading to numerous non-human primate species living in proximity to human settlements. Like other non-human primates, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are frequently reported to inhabit human-influenced habitats. However, our understanding about chimpanzee behavioural adaptations to these habitats is still limited. This dissertation presents a cross-disciplinary approach to understand chimpanzee and human sympatry in a forest-agricultural mosaic habitat at Madina in Cantanhez National Park, Guinea-Bissau. The aim of this research is to examine the home range and habitat preference on this unhabituated and unstudied community of chimpanzees to better inform their long-term survival alongside local people. A set of interviews were done in order to understand local people’s perceptions toward chimpanzees, their agricultural activities, and use of forest resources. These data help to create a framework to understand the extent of human activities in the area. During the study period, there were high levels of human-influenced changes on the landscape due to slash-and-burn activities. Cashew seems to have an increasing value to human communities. However, human-chimpanzee interactions are considered ‘low-conflict’ due to local cultural beliefs towards chimpanzees and differential utilization of this cash crop by both species. A map of the study area was created showing a highly fragmented habitat, and a set of indirect (faeces, feeding traces, nest) and direct (opportunistic observations) chimpanzee signs were collected to understand this communities distribution. For the first time, two commonly used methods to calculate animal home range size (Minimum Convex Polygon and Kernel analysis) were used in an unhabituated chimpanzee community living in a human-influenced habitat. The data demonstrate that Kernel analysis gives more realistic results suggesting that Madina chimpanzee community has an estimated home range size of 8.93 Km2. The correlation of home range size and community size of different chimpanzee communities suggests that Madina chimpanzees may have a community size of about 48 individuals. These results show a relatively small home range and large community size, which suggests that Madina chimpanzees may currently be successfully exploiting this anthropogenic habitat. Analysis of the distribution of chimpanzee signs show higher levels of utilization of ‘natural’ habitats by the species. However, feeding trace distribution showed that orchards and young forest areas have similar levels of utilization by chimpanzees for foraging. Analysis of the feeding traces during the study period suggests that chimpanzees are feeding on similar proportions of cultivated and forest resources suggesting that chimpanzees are integrating cultivars into their feeding strategies. This may be caused by the relative tolerance shown by neighbouring human communities ii , despite chimpanzees likely perceiving elevated levels of the foraging risk in human environments. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) groves show high levels of utilization by chimpanzees, particularly for nesting, and this research confirms that the oil-palm an important resource for humans and chimpanzees. Despite the ‘low conflict’ interactions at Madina, the increasing monetary value of cashew may create more severe and permanent changes of the landscape and human perceptions toward chimpanzees are likely to change in the future. |
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