Abstract
Few studies are available on the population dynamics of medium and large mammals in gallery forests of the Sudan and Sahel regions of West Africa. Line-transect studies of the abundance (estimated by KIA) of nine species of ungulates and three species of primates were carried out between 2004 and 2013 in the Comoé-Leraba protected area of Burkina Faso, West Africa. No peer-reviewed study of population sizes of mammals in this protected area has been published, making the data presented of special relevance. Population size trends varied significantly across years in both primates and ungulates, with some species (Papio anubis, Phacochoerus africanus, Alcelaphus busephalus and Tragelaphus scriptus) decreasing consistently. Significant relationships were observed between poaching intensity and population oscillations in Erythrocebus patas, Kobus ellipsiprymnus, Kobus kob, Ourebia ourebi and Cephalophus rufilatus.
Highlights
Guineo-Congolian lowland rain forest and secondary grasslands give way in northern latitudes to isolated pockets of riparian or gallery forests following the course of large rivers such as the Niger, Comoé and Leraba, which are surrounded by undifferentiated Sudanian woodlands and savannahs (White 1983)
The mean kilometric abundance index (KA) density was nearly identical between Papio anubis and Chlorocebus tantalus (0.76±0.046 individuals per km and 0.75±0.025 individuals per km respectively), whereas the density of Erythrocebus patas was much higher (1.134±0.050 individuals per km)
A heterogeneity of slopes test revealed that the trends of the various ungulate species varied significantly across years, with the KAs of the Common Warthog Phacochoerus africanus, Alcelaphus busephalus and the Kewel Bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus decreasing remarkably, and the KA density of the other two species showing no remarkable fluctuations over the years (Fig. 3)
Summary
Guineo-Congolian lowland rain forest and secondary grasslands give way in northern latitudes to isolated pockets of riparian or gallery forests following the course of large rivers such as the Niger, Comoé and Leraba, which are surrounded by undifferentiated Sudanian woodlands and savannahs (White 1983) These gallery forests are crucial landscape elements in Sudan and Sahel regions because they carry typical rainforest faunal elements inhabiting the Gulf of Guinea region up to the otherwise dry regions of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali (e.g., Böhme et al 1996; Joger & Lambert 2002). The Comoé-Leraba area in southwestern Burkina Faso (western Africa) represents an unique opportunity for studying the composition and population dynamics of the mammal populations of gallery forest areas, because it is a protected area that has been regularly monitored by the NGO Association Inter Villageois de GEstion des REssources Naturelles et de la Faune Comoé-Leraba (AGEREF/CL) and governmental agencies across the years. We compare year-byyear population size patterns with indices of poaching in order to establish whether illegal hunting in this habitat type as well as in other savannah habitats (e.g., Caughley et al 1990; Krebs 2009) may be a main factor conditioning the population dynamics of ungulates and primates
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