Biodiversity Research

Recent decline in suitable environmental conditions for African great apes

  1. Jessica Junker1,
  2. Stephen Blake2,
  3. Christophe Boesch1,3,
  4. Geneviève Campbell1,
  5. Louwrens du Toit1,
  6. Chris Duvall4,
  7. Atanga Ekobo5,
  8. Gilles Etoga5,
  9. Anh Galat-Luong6,
  10. Joel Gamys7,
  11. Jessica Ganas-Swaray8,
  12. Sylvain Gatti9,
  13. Andrea Ghiurghi10,
  14. Nicolas Granier11,
  15. John Hart12,
  16. Josephine Head1,
  17. Ilka Herbinger13,
  18. Thurston Cleveland Hicks1,
  19. Bas Huijbregts14,
  20. Inaoyom S. Imong1,15,
  21. Noëlle Kuempel16,
  22. Sally Lahm17,
  23. Jeremy Lindsell18,
  24. Fiona Maisels15,19,
  25. Matthew McLennan20,
  26. Laura Martinez21,
  27. Bethan Morgan22,
  28. David Morgan15,23,
  29. Felix Mulindahabi15,
  30. Roger Mundry1,
  31. Kouamé Paul N'Goran3,24,25,
  32. Emmanuelle Normand3,
  33. Anne Ntongho5,
  34. David Tiku Okon5,
  35. Charles-Albert Petre26,
  36. Andrew Plumptre15,
  37. Hugo Rainey15,
  38. Sébastien Regnaut3,
  39. Crickette Sanz15,27,
  40. Emma Stokes15,
  41. Adama Tondossama28,
  42. Sandra Tranquilli1,29,
  43. Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves30,
  44. Peter Walsh31,
  45. Ymke Warren15,†,
  46. Elizabeth A. Williamson19,
  47. Hjalmar S. Kuehl1,*

Article first published online: 23 SEP 2012

DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12005

Issue

Diversity and Distributions

Diversity and Distributions

Volume 18, Issue 11, pages 1077–1091, November 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Junker, J., Blake, S., Boesch, C., Campbell, G., Toit, L. d., Duvall, C., Ekobo, A., Etoga, G., Galat-Luong, A., Gamys, J., Ganas-Swaray, J., Gatti, S., Ghiurghi, A., Granier, N., Hart, J., Head, J., Herbinger, I., Hicks, T. C., Huijbregts, B., Imong, I. S., Kuempel, N., Lahm, S., Lindsell, J., Maisels, F., McLennan, M., Martinez, L., Morgan, B., Morgan, D., Mulindahabi, F., Mundry, R., N'Goran, K. P., Normand, E., Ntongho, A., Okon, D. T., Petre, C.-A., Plumptre, A., Rainey, H., Regnaut, S., Sanz, C., Stokes, E., Tondossama, A., Tranquilli, S., Sunderland-Groves, J., Walsh, P., Warren, Y., Williamson, E. A., Kuehl, H. S. (2012), Recent decline in suitable environmental conditions for African great apes. Diversity and Distributions, 18: 1077–1091. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12005

Author Information

  1. 1

    Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

  2. 2

    Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, Radolfzell, Germany

  3. 3

    Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, Leipzig, Germany

  4. 4

    Department of Geography, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

  5. 5

    WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office, Yaoundé, Cameroon

  6. 6

    Département Ressources Vivantes, IRD, Montpellier Cedex, France

  7. 7

    Conservation International, Monrovia, Liberia

  8. 8

    Zoological Society of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

  9. 9

    West African Primate Conservation Action, Accra, Ghana

  10. 10

    AGRECO, Rome, Italy

  11. 11

    Behavioural Biology Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

  12. 12

    Tshuapa-Lomami-Lualaba (TL2) Project, Lukuru Wildlife Research Foundation, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

  13. 13

    WWF Germany, Berlin, Germany

  14. 14

    WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office (CARPO), Libreville, Gabon

  15. 15

    Global Conservation Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, NY, USA

  16. 16

    Zoological Society of London, London, UK

  17. 17

    Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale, Makokou, Gabon

  18. 18

    Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK

  19. 19

    School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

  20. 20

    Anthropology Centre for Conservation, Environment & Development, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

  21. 21

    Research Institute of EcoScience, Ewha Womans University, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul, Korea

  22. 22

    San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research, Escondido, CA, USA

  23. 23

    Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, USA

  24. 24

    Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

  25. 25

    Université d'Abobo-Adjamé, Adjamé, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

  26. 26

    Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Forestry, Unit of Forest and Nature Management, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Université de Liège, Gembloux, Belgium

  27. 27

    Department of Anthropology, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, USA

  28. 28

    Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

  29. 29

    Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, UK

  30. 30

    Forests and Livelihoods Programme, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia

  31. 31

    Division of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

  1. †

    Deceased.

* Correspondence: Hjalmar S. Kuehl, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
E-mail: kuehl@eva.mpg.de

  1. †

    Deceased.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 OCT 2012
  2. Article first published online: 23 SEP 2012

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (1263K)

Keywords:

  • Bonobo;
  • chimpanzee;
  • distribution;
  • gorilla;
  • IUCN/SSC A.P.E.S. database;
  • logistic regression;
  • spatial model

Abstract

Aim

To predict the distribution of suitable environmental conditions (SEC) for eight African great ape taxa for a first time period, the 1990s and then project it to a second time period, the 2000s; to assess the relative importance of factors influencing SEC distribution and to estimate rates of SEC loss, isolation and fragmentation over the last two decades.

Location

Twenty-two African great ape range countries.

Methods

We extracted 15,051 presence localities collected between 1995 and 2010 from 68 different areas surveyed across the African ape range. We combined a maximum entropy algorithm and logistic regression to relate ape presence information to environmental and human impact variables from the 1990s with a resolution of 5 × 5 km across the entire ape range. We then made SEC projections for the 2000s using updated human impact variables.

Results

Total SEC area was approximately 2,015,480 and 1,807,653 km2 in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. Loss of predicted SEC appeared highest for Cross River gorillas (−59%), followed by eastern gorillas (−52%), western gorillas (−32%), bonobos (−29%), central chimpanzees (−17%) and western chimpanzees (−11%). SEC for Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees and eastern chimpanzees was not greatly reduced. Except for Cross River and eastern gorillas, the number of SEC patches did not change significantly, suggesting that SEC loss was caused mainly by patch size reduction.

Main conclusions

The first continent-wide perspective of African ape SEC distribution shows dramatic declines in recent years. The model has clear limitations for use at small geographic scales, given the quality of available data and the coarse resolution of predictions. However, at the large scale it has potential for informing international policymaking, mitigation of resource extraction and infrastructure development, as well as for spatial prioritization of conservation effort and evaluating conservation effectiveness.

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (1263K)