#Eastern chimpanzee mortality rate full#

Enormous efforts are underway to accumulate this information. The conservation of the world's primates demands basics, elusive and hard-to-get information. An estimate of the size of various populations throughout their historical distribution in the Itombwe Massif is therefore crucial. Thus, there was an urgent need to confirm the current status of the great ape populations by carrying out a systematic survey of the Itombwe Nature Reserve.Īs good conservation practice aims to preserve as much ecological, morphological, behavioural and genetic diversity as possible (Oates 2006), the conservation of subspecies and populations is important.

#Eastern chimpanzee mortality rate full#

The full impact of civil strife, political turmoil and recent poaching events was unknown due to insecurity in this region, a complete census had not been conducted since 1996, therefore, there was a need to have an accurate estimate of the entire population. The forest has suffered considerable human disturbance in the past in the form of mining, timber extraction, firewood collection, charcoal production, human-induced fire and poaching. This illegal hunting has been facilitated by a proliferation of firearms due to widespread insecurity in eastern DRC for the past 20 years. Grauer's gorilla and the chimpanzee have been severely affected by human activities, most notably poaching for bushmeat associated with artisanal mining camps and for commercial trade. These two subspecies have full legal protection under the law n° 14/003 governing wildlife conservation and the ministerial decree n° 20/CAB/MIN/ECN-EF/2006 ascertaining the list of totally protected species in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Not surprising was that the Grauer's gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri) - the largest living primate - is now listed as Critically Endangered, the highest category, while the eastern chimpanzee ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) remains categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. During the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2016, updates in the Red List of Threatened Species were made public. Periodic censuses of threatened wildlife populations of high profile species help us to understand their population dynamics, assess the success of conservation programmes aimed at ensuring their survival, and ensure that they receive continued attention from the global conservation community.