Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY
Volume 76, Issue 11, Pages 999-1010Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22278
Keywords
chimpanzee; nest count; nesting-site selection; behavioral ecology; conservation
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology - Japan [16002001, 20002001, 24000001]
- JSPS-ITP-HOPE
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [24000001] Funding Source: KAKEN
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We investigated nesting behavior of non habituated chimpanzees populating the Nimba Mountains to document their abundance and their criterions of nesting-site selection. During a 19-month study we walked 80km of transects and recces each month, and recorded 764 nests (mean group size=2.23 nests) along with characteristics of vegetation structure and composition, topography, and seasonality. Population density estimated with two nest count methods ranged between 0.14 and 0.65chimpanzee/km(2). These values are lower than previous estimates, emphasizing the necessity of protecting remaining wild ape populations. Chimpanzees built nests in 108 tree species out of 437 identified, but 2.3% of total species comprised 52% of nests. Despite they preferred nesting in trees of 25-29cm DBH and at a mean height of 8.02m, we recorded an important proportion of terrestrial nests (8.2%) that may reflect a cultural trait of Nimba chimpanzees. A logistic model of nest presence formulated as a function of 12 habitat variables revealed preference for gallery and mountain forests rather than lowland forest, and old-growth forest rather than secondary forests. They nested more frequently in the study area during the dry season (December-April). The highest probability of observing nests was at 770m altitude, particularly in steep locations (mean ground declivity=15.54%). Several of the reported nest characteristics combined with the existence of two geographically separated clusters of nest, suggest that the study area constitutes the non-overlapping peripheral areas of two distinct communities. This nest-based study led us to findings on the behavioral ecology of Nimba chimpanzees, which constitute crucial knowledge to implement efficient and purpose-built conservation. Am. J. Primatol. 76:999-1010, 2014. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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