Impacts of anthropogenic pressures on wildlife in the northern sector of the National Park of Mbam and Djerem, Adamaou Cameroon

Abstract

The study on the assessment of the scale of human pressure on wildlife in the Mbam and Djerem National Park was conducted between December 2012 and April 2013. This evaluation has relied on a review of seven reports ecological monitoring produced by Wildlife Conservation Society between 2006 and 2012, and direct observations. Results show that: the main causes of the reduction of wildlife are poaching (60.5%), transhumance (16.5%), illegal fishing (10.9%) and uncontrolled bush fires (1.5%). In terms of relative abundance of human activities, it was found that the number of human indexes droped from 232 in 2006 to 109 in 2009 and 109 to 82 in 2012 as well as wildlife or encounter rate per kilometer species activity signs indicated a high relative abundance of elephants has increased from 1,008 in 2006 to 2.18 in 2009 and 2.18 to 5.80 in 2012 followed by buffalo and hocheur general, activities anthropogenic influences negatively but very weak wildlife (r = -0.06). This influence is positive and is higher among Loxodonta africana (r = 0.9), Pan troglodytes (r = 0.6), Greater spot-nosed monkey (r = 0.4), low in Syncerus caffer (r = 0.1) and Red river hog (r = 0.05) between 2006 and 2012, a reduction of human activities 64.7% was observed. To reduce the impact of human activities on wildlife, it is desirable to strengthen the monitoring of livestock in the park and the fight against poaching device. Key words: Human activities, Wildlife, Mbam and Djerem National Park, ecological monitoring.