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The article discusses the post-war conditions and the resulting challenges in the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). The article authors, one of whom is a senior conservationist for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the other is the acting director of WCS's country program in DR Congo, write about the challenges they have to face in this region. They see that a meal can be got with a wave of a gun, a share in gold and diamonds can be had by pointing a gun, elephants are killed and ivory sold for cash in Uganda. They knew that their conservation work had to move forward from grass roots. There was no government authority to rely on. At Mambasa, the closest administrative center to Epulu, the police were involved in poaching elephants from the Okapi Reserve. Among their first priorities was to census the wildlife left in the reserve to awaken international concern. According to them, a major part of the traditional population must forever be protected from exploitation. Nearly 9,000 Mbuti pygmy hunter-gatherers live in and near the Okapi Reserve, and they need to be assured a large secure area in which to carry on their traditional hunts. People need to be taught better farming techniques by providing them with improved seed varieties.

The article focuses on wildlife conservation efforts taken by the author in the Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo. Battles continue in the eastern arc of the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite a national agreement for a power-sharing government to end seven years of civil war. Several dark facts about the Congolese civil war set it apart. In DR Congo, there are not just two opposing ideas of statehood--more than six Congolese warlords seek to eat some coveted geographic piece of the pie, and at least eight outside countries have been involved. Furthermore, the economic tensions during the American war concerned the wealth of Americans. As field scientists of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the author and her husband came to live in the Ituri Forest in 1985 to study the okapi, the secretive rain-forest giraffe. Ineluctably, they were drawn into conservation. This magnificent forest had to have a protected area, and so they worked with others to establish the Okapi Reserve. In Congo, foreigners milk the land and war profits feed the economies of other nations.

The article focuses on the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its impact on wildlife. Since the supposed end of the war two years ago, the impact on wildlife continues to be severe and incidents like the one perpetrated in Garamba National Park are not rare. Three park guards have been killed and nine patrol posts attacked by armed bands of rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, which hugs the border with volatile Rwanda. In the Okapi Reserve in the Ituri Forest for the last seven months in 2004, 164 elephants are known to have been killed by poachers, who were helped by military bands aligned with former warlords. The country's national parks and nature reserve surround uninhabited forests in which belligerents hide to plunder in semi-secret. The okapi and the northern white rhino both live only within the eastern arc of the war zone. The Congo peacock and the bonobo, the most human-like of all apes, also inhabit the vast closed forests that blanket the equator. They, too, exist in no other country but Congo.

Focuses on the joint effort of Wildlife Conservation Society scientists and people of Central Africa to conserve wildlife in the region. Description of the rain forests in the region; Effect of anarchy on forest exploitation and conservation in Central Africa.

Hunting of species not protected by national law and during open hunting season is authorised by Maniema Province regulations in the buffer zone of the Lomami National Park (LNP). Since 2017, vouchers tally numbers and species of authorised bushmeat, as well as shotgun ammunition and snare cable transported across LNP on established tracks. The voucher system has high rates of compliance. Vouchers provide proof to park rangers checking caravans that bushmeat was not illegally harvested, and ammunition and snare cable not illegally deployed in LNP. Vouchers facilitate monitoring of bushmeat commerce in about 1/5 of Kindu's bushmeat catchment. Numbers of animals reported in vouchers has declined 2017–2021. However, the proportion of large mammals in bushmeat loads has not declined during this period. This suggests faunal depletion has not occurred in areas sourced by transporters. Insecurity in the area in 2019 led Congolese military to limit shotgun ammunition in transporters loads. This was associated with a decline in numbers of primates in bushmeat loads. Increasing costs and risks of bushmeat transport versus increasing availability and decreasing cost of domestic meat in Kindu have reduced the economic value of bushmeat trade from the LNP buffer zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Endangered dryas monkey Cercopithecus dryas, endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of Africa's most enigmatic primates. The discovery of a dryas monkey killed by a hunter in the buffer zone of Lomami National Park in 2014 prompted field research on the species' distribution, habitat use and stratum preference. We used local knowledge to determine the distribution of this species and to select sites for camera-trap surveys in Lomami National Park and its buffer zone. We employed a multi-strata (0–29 m) camera-trap placement technique to determine habitat use at Camp Bartho in Lomami National Park and Bafundo Forest in the Park's buffer zone. We confirmed the occurrence of the dryas monkey at seven locations over a total area of 3,453 km2, in both the Park and its buffer zone. Dryas monkeys were detected most frequently (2.22 events/100 trap-days) in disturbed areas of Bafundo Forest and less in mature forest in Camp Bartho (0.82 events/100 trap-days). Dryas monkeys appear to prefer structurally complex understories and forest edges. We found that camera traps at 2–10 m above ground over at least 365 trap-days are required to determine if the species is present. We recommend utilizing local knowledge and using this species-specific camera-trap method in other areas of the central Congo basin to determine the wider distribution of the dryas monkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the state of the Okapi Faunal Reserve in Congo. Effects of the political climate in Congo on the conservation of animals; Information regarding elephant poaching; Discussion on the plans of the Gilman International Conservation on animal protection.

The article reports that population of grey parrots has declined due to export from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Topics discussed include exploitation of the parrots in DRC's Orientale and Maniema provinces, an increasing in trapping and habitat loss, monitoring of the parrots through surveys of forest clearings, exploitation of parrot aggregations by trappers and steps taken by the provinces to stop the exploitation.

Reports on Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) field scientists, Terese and John Hart who are conducting a study of okapis in the wild at the Ituri Forest of Zaire, which is home to the Mbuti Pygmies. Hart's 1992 Okapi Wildlife Reserve creation; Centre de Formational et Recherche en Conservation Forestiere (CEFRECOF) operations; Study details; Relationship with Pygmies.

Describes the efforts to assist conservationists in maintaining the protective function of national parks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the midst of a warring region. Protection of apes in DRC; Role of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Financial assistance from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Understanding the impact of hunting on wildlife is necessary to protect biodiversity in remote, endangered ecosystems, where rural communities depend on bushmeat as sources of food and income. Unsustainable hunting has led to a major decline in mammal population densities across Africa, especially for ungulates and primates. The objectives of this study were to (1) quantify the impact of hunting on lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), a semiterrestrial and poorly known monkey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and (2) assess the species' relative abundance in the context of its behavioral ecology and local hunting practices. We compared the relative abundance of lesula to prey species preferred by hunters using data collected from camera trap surveys (5,960 days) and primate vocalization surveys (n = 174) and assessed species-specific hunting pressure in the buffer zone using data collected from surveillance patrols (2,255 km), hunter follows (n = 16), and semistructured interviews (n = 21). We found that the abundance of terrestrial mammal and primate species was negatively impacted by hunting in the buffer zone, but the abundance of lesula appeared relatively similar throughout its range. Our results suggest that the relative tolerance of lesula in the buffer zone was associated with its ecological niche and the specific behavior of local hunters. Lesula is a threatened, endemic monkey of the Congo Basin rainforest, and this study provides data to enable its continuous monitoring and long-term population management. Some primate populations, such as lesula, may be able to persist under specific conditions despite being subject to high hunting pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the effect of war on the wildlife of Eastern Zaire and the efforts by conservationists to nurture local, semi-autonomous conservation institutions and train Zairian staff to protect the wildlife. Conditions of Virginia National Park and three other World Heritage sites; Importance of grassroots approach in wildlife conservation.

Examining the relationship between food and primate social organization helps us understand how the environment shaped hominin social evolution. However, there is debate as to whether the social differences between our two closest relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), are due to differences in food availability between their respective habitats or to nonenvironmental factors. The most prominent theory is that bonobo communities have more socially cohesive, stable parties, centered on gregarious females because they evolved in food‐rich habitat where individuals, especially females, are less burdened by competition with groupmates. However, more research on bonobos in habitats with seasonal variation in food is needed. This study measured food availability and bonobo social organization at Luzaka, a new site in a seasonal forest fragment. Fruit abundance and dispersion were recorded for a year at Luzaka with the same methods used at Wamba, a bonobo site in more seasonally stable habitat and terrestrial herbaceous vegetation density was measured. At Luzaka, bonobo parties were also recorded for a year using camera traps. Fruit was more seasonal and dispersed at Luzaka than at Wamba. However, the social organization of Luzaka bonobos resembled social organization of bonobos at less seasonal sites. There were minor effects of fruit clumping on party size without effects on the proportion of females in parties suggesting that at Luzaka, the clumping of fruit slightly affected social cohesiveness but does not disproportionately affect females. Bonobo social cohesiveness and female gregariousness appears consistent and compatible with seasonal habitat. Research highlights: The female‐centered socially cohesive nature of bonobo social organization is thought to have been shaped by low competition in the food‐rich rainforests where bonobos evolved and has only been well‐studied in such habitat.This study confirmed that at the southeastern limit of the bonobo range, ripe fruit is more seasonally scarce and dispersed and investigated whether this food seasonality affected bonobo social cohesiveness and female gregariousness using camera traps.Bonobo social organization is consistent across habitat types: fruit clumping had a small positive effect on party size but fruit availability did not affect female gregariousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ituri Forest, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) is an example of a closed canopy forest showing extreme depletion in 13C. δ13C values for plants from the canopy top, from gaps in the canopy, and from the subcanopy average -29.0±1.7‰, -30.4±0.9‰, and -34.0±1.5‰, respectively. The δ13C of forest mammals show these differences, with the subcanopy browsers (okapi, dwarf antelope) having δ13C values for tooth enamel much more negative than subcanopy frugivores who derive their food from the canopy top, and from folivores and omnivores living in gap or clearing areas. Nitrogen isotopes in plants from this ecosystem have an average δ15N value of 5.4±1.8‰ and do not show significant differences at the 95% confidence interval between plants from the canopy top, from gaps in the canopy, and from the subcanopy. The δ18OSMOW values of surface waters in the study area are between -2.0 and -2.7. The δ18OPDB for tooth enamel ranged from -3 to +7‰. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The little known guenon Cercopithecus dryas has a controversial taxonomic history with some recognizing two taxa (C. dryas and C. salongo) instead of one. New adult specimens from the TL2 region of the central Congo Basin allow further assessment of C. dryas morphology and, along with CT scans of the juvenile holotype, provide ontogenetically stable comparisons across all C. dryas and "C. salongo" specimens for the first time. Materials and Methods: The skins and skulls of two newly acquired C. dryas specimens, male YPM MAM 16890 and female YPM MAM 17066, were compared to previously described C. dryas and "C. salongo" specimens, along with a broader guenon comparative sample (cranial sample n = 146, dental sample n = 102). Qualitative and quantitative assessments were made on the basis of commonly noted pelage features as well as craniodental characters in the form of shape ratios and multivariate discriminant analyses. Results: All C. dryas specimens, including the TL2 adults, are comparatively small in overall cranial size, have relatively small I1s, and display tall molar cusps; these osteological characters, along with pelage features, are shared with known "C. salongo" specimens. Discriminant analyses of dental features separate C. dryas/salongo specimens from all other guenons. Discussion In addition to pelage‐based evidence, direct osteological evidence suggests "C. salongo" is a junior synonym of C. dryas. Combined with molecular analyses suggesting C. dryas is most closely related to Chlorocebus spp., we emend the species diagnosis and support its transfer to Chlorocebus or possibly a new genus to reflect its distinctiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural history and taxonomic status of two central African primates, Cercopithecus dryas and Cercopithecus salongo have long been in question. Recent studies confirmed that C. dryas is a basal member of the savanna monkey clade, and that it prefers dense undergrowth in lowland rainforest. While these studies advanced our knowledge of this enigmatic species, key aspects of its natural history remain poorly documented. Furthermore, the lack of a field study that documents pelage patterns of both sexes and different age classes of C. dryas has led to a disagreement over the validity of C. salongo as a sister taxon to C. dryas. Using the results of two multi‐strata camera trap surveys in Lomami National Park (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and its buffer zone, we conducted a third survey in the understory of degraded forest to accumulate videos of C. dryas/salongo. We used these videos to test the hypothesis that C. dryas and C. salongo are synonymous, and to assess the species' group composition, density, behavior and vocalizations. Camera traps revealed an ontogenetic change in pelage pattern that supports the view that C. salongo is the adult of C. dryas. Videos revealed that adult males develop a blue perineum and scrotum, and a red subcaudal patch, similar to other savanna monkeys. We provide a preliminary assessment of C. dryas' group composition, density, behavior, and vocalizations. This long‐overlooked monkey is an exceptional member of the Chlorocebus clade, and all aspects of its biology require further investigation. Research Highlights: Camera trap videos support that two described species, Cercopithecus dryas and Cercopithecus salongo, are conspecific.Male dryas monkeys develop a red subcaudal patch, blue perineum, and white caudal ruff that forms an elaborate display, similar to the red, white, and blue displays of savanna monkeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are a diverse and primarily arboreal radiation of Old World monkeys from Africa. However, preliminary behavioral observations of the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), a little‐known guenon species described in 2012, report it spending substantial amounts of time on the ground. New specimens allow us to present the first description of lesula postcranial morphology and apply a comparative functional morphology approach to supplement our knowledge of its locomotor behavior. Materials and methods: To infer the substrate use preferences of the lesula, 22 postcranial variables correlated with locomotion were assessed in a sample of 151 adult guenon specimens, including two C. lomamiensis. Using multivariate statistical analyses, we predict the amount of time the lesula spends on the ground relative to the comparative sample. Results: Results suggest that the lesula spends nearly half its time on the ground, and the two available individuals were classified as semiterrestrial and terrestrial with strong support. Comparisons with two outgroup cercopithecid taxa (Colobus guereza and Macaca mulatta) demonstrate that, as a group, guenons retain signals of a generalized, semiterrestrially adapted postcranium compared to specialized arboreal cercopithecids. Discussion: These results corroborate preliminary behavioral observations of the lesula as a semiterrestrial to terrestrial primate and imply multiple evolutionary transitions in substrate use among the guenon radiation. A broader view of cercopithecoid evolution suggests that a semiterrestrial ancestor for extant guenons is more parsimonious than an arboreal one, indicating that the arboreal members of the group are probably recently derived from a more semiterrestrial ancestor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Laverania clade comprises the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum as well as at least seven additional parasite species that infect wild African apes. A recent analysis of Laverania genome sequences (Otto TD, et al. 2018. Genomes of all known members of a Plasmodium subgenus reveal paths to virulent human malaria. Nat Microbiol. 3: 687–697) reported three instances of interspecies gene transfer, one of which had previously been described. Generating gene sequences from additional ape parasites and re-examining sequencing reads generated in the Otto et al. study, we identified one of the newly described gene transfers as an assembly artifact of sequences derived from a sample coinfected by two parasite species. The second gene transfer between ancestors of two divergent chimpanzee parasite lineages was confirmed, but involved a much larger number of genes than originally described, many of which encode exported proteins that remodel, or bind to, erythrocytes. Because successful hybridization between Laverania species is very rare, it will be important to determine to what extent these gene transfers have shaped their host interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) inhabit regions south of the Congo River including all areas between its southerly tributaries. To investigate the genetic diversity and evolutionary relationship among bonobo populations, we sequenced mitochondrial DNA from 376 fecal samples collected in seven study populations located within the eastern and western limits of the species’ range. In 136 effective samples from different individuals (range: 7–37 per population), we distinguished 54 haplotypes in six clades (A1, A2, B1, B2, C, D), which included a newly identified clade (D). MtDNA haplotypes were regionally clustered; 83 percent of haplotypes were locality-specific. The distribution of haplotypes across populations and the genetic diversity within populations thus showed highly geographical patterns. Using population distance measures, seven populations were categorized in three clusters: the east, central, and west cohorts. Although further elucidation of historical changes in the geological setting is required, the geographical patterns of genetic diversity seem to be shaped by paleoenvironmental changes during the Pleistocene. The present day riverine barriers appeared to have a weak effect on gene flow among populations, except for the Lomami River, which separates the TL2 population from the others. The central cohort preserves a high genetic diversity, and two unique clades of haplotypes were found in the Wamba/Iyondji populations in the central cohort and in the TL2 population in the eastern cohort respectively. This knowledge may contribute to the planning of bonobo conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2007, a previously undescribed monkey known locally as "lesula" was found in the forests of the middle Lomami Basin in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We describe this new species as Cercopithecus lomamiensis sp. nov., and provide data on its distribution, morphology, genetics, ecology and behavior. C. lomamiensis is restricted to the lowland rain forests of central DRC between the middle Lomami and the upper Tshuapa Rivers. Morphological and molecular data confirm that C. lomamiensis is distinct from its nearest congener, C. hamlyni, from which it is separated geographically by both the Congo (Lualaba) and the Lomami Rivers. C. lomamiensis, like C. hamlyni, is semi-terrestrial with a diet containing terrestrial herbaceous vegetation. The discovery of C. lomamiensis highlights the biogeographic significance and importance for conservation of central Congo's interfluvial TL2 region, defined from the upper Tshuapa River through the Lomami Basin to the Congo (Lualaba) River. The TL2 region has been found to contain a high diversity of anthropoid primates including three forms, in addition to C. lomamiensis, that are endemic to the area. We recommend the common name, lesula, for this new species, as it is the vernacular name used over most of its known range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response of terrestrial vegetation to a globally changing environment is central to predictions of future levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The role of tropical forests is critical because they are carbon-dense and highly productive. Inventory plots across Amazonia show that old-growth forests have increased in carbon storage over recent decades, but the response of one-third of the world’s tropical forests in Africa is largely unknown owing to an absence of spatially extensive observation networks. Here we report data from a ten-country network of long-term monitoring plots in African tropical forests. We find that across 79 plots (163 ha) above-ground carbon storage in live trees increased by 0.63 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 between 1968 and 2007 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22–0.94; mean interval, 1987–96). Extrapolation to unmeasured forest components (live roots, small trees, necromass) and scaling to the continent implies a total increase in carbon storage in African tropical forest trees of 0.34 Pg C yr-1 (CI, 0.15–0.43). These reported changes in carbon storage are similar to those reported for Amazonian forests per unit area, providing evidence that increasing carbon storage in old-growth forests is a pan-tropical phenomenon. Indeed, combining all standardized inventory data from this study and from tropical America and Asia together yields a comparable figure of 0.49 Mg C ha-1 yr-1 (n = 156; 562 ha; CI, 0.29–0.66; mean interval, 1987–97). This indicates a carbon sink of 1.3 Pg C yr-1 (CI, 0.8–1.6) across all tropical forests during recent decades. Taxon-specific analyses of African inventory and other data suggest that widespread changes in resource availability, such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, may be the cause of the increase in carbon stocks, as some theory and models predict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of changes in biomass and primary productivity across ten large tropical forest plots revealed that aboveground biomass increased significantly, fast-growing species increased significantly in dominance at a single site, and slow-growing species increased significantly at half of our sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most ecological hypotheses about species coexistence hinge on species differences, but quantifying trait differences across species in diverse communities is often unfeasible. We examined the variation of demographic traits using a global tropical forest data set covering 4500 species in 10 large-scale tree inventories. With a hierarchical Bayesian approach, we quantified the distribution of mortality and growth rates of all tree species at each site. This allowed us to test the prediction that demographic differences facilitate species richness, as suggested by the theory that a tradeoff between high growth and high survival allows species to coexist. Contrary to the prediction, the most diverse forests had the least demographic variation. Although demographic differences may fester coexistence, they do not explain any of the 16-fold variation in tree species richness observed across the tropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forests vary substantially in the densities of trees of different sizes and thus in above-ground biomass and carbon stores. However, these tree size distributions show fundamental similarities suggestive of underlying general principles. The theory of metabolic ecology predicts that tree abundances will scale as the −2 power of diameter. Demographic equilibrium theory explains tree abundances in terms of the scaling of growth and mortality. We use demographic equilibrium theory to derive analytic predictions for tree size distributions corresponding to different growth and mortality functions. We test both sets of predictions using data from 14 large-scale tropical forest plots encompassing censuses of 473 ha and > 2 million trees. The data are uniformly inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology. In most forests, size distributions are much closer to the predictions of demographic equilibrium, and thus, intersite variation in size distributions is explained partly by intersite variation in growth and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of metabolic ecology predicts specific relationships among tree stem diameter, biomass, height, growth and mortality. As demographic rates are important to estimates of carbon fluxes in forests, this theory might offer important insights into the global carbon budget, and deserves careful assessment. We assembled data from 10 old-growth tropical forests encompassing censuses of 367 ha and > 1.7 million trees to test the theory's predictions. We also developed a set of alternative predictions that retained some assumptions of metabolic ecology while also considering how availability of a key limiting resource, light, changes with tree size. Our results show that there are no universal scaling relationships of growth or mortality with size among trees in tropical forests. Observed patterns were consistent with our alternative model in the one site where we had the data necessary to evaluate it, and were inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology in all forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]