Multivariate analysis of cranial measurements of Cameroon’s Blue Duiker (Cephalophusmonticola Thunberg, 1789)

Abstract

The blue duiker (Cephalophusmonticola)isexclusively an African wild bovidae. It is a principal source of protein in the African forest zones and contributes in the nutrition of local populations. Fifteen cranial measurements on 60 skulls using the opportunist’s method as from January 2018 to December2018. Descriptive statistic and multivariate analysis were done using SPSS version 21.0software and XLSTAT-Pro version 7.5.2 software. It reveals that, there exist a significant difference between males and females skull (p>0.05): total length of skull 114.32 ± .81 and 121.71 ± 1.77; Palate maximal width 35.24 ± .75 and 44.96 ± 14.80; postorbital apophyses width 23.34 ± 1.11and 36.26 ± 1.79; Palatine length 55.31 ± 1.16 and 66.52 ± 1.86; condyle basal length 96.53 ± 1.26 and 105.43 ± 3.05 for the males and females respectively. We have a high positive correlation between the jugal teeth line length and the total skull length (0.973); between palatine length and the total skull length (0.990) and, between condyle basal length and the total skull length (0.993). The principal component analysis (PCA) enable us to see the level of genetics variabilities of blue duiker through skull measurements. These variables measurement are close together from one to another where there is a high similarity between species. Despite these similarities, the population structure of blue duiker shows three sub-species of blue duiker C1, C2 and C3 found respectively in the agro ecological zones of the Western highlands, Mono-modal humid forest and Bimodal humid forest. These three sub-species varies genetically.