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Ungulates have undergone major declines in Central and West African forests as a result of bushmeat trade and habitat loss. Monitoring forest ungulate status is a critical conservation need. We undertook a systematic camera-trap survey of the Ngoyla Faunal Reserve within the ∼11,000 km2 Dja-Ngoyla Complex, part of the critical TRIDOM forest landscape in Central Africa. We deployed cameras at 36 sites over 2,734 camera-trap days. We recorded 3,307 independent detections of 12 species of forest ungulates. The Peters’ duiker and blue duiker were the most abundant, accounting for 71 % of all ungulate detections, both with occupancy >85 %. The black-fronted duiker and white-bellied duiker were relatively widespread but rare. There were very few detections of Bates’ pygmy antelope, sitatunga, forest buffalo, and bongo. These findings are similar to our baseline population estimates of ungulates in the neighbouring Dja World Heritage site. Our study provides further evidence of ecological partitioning among the more abundant duikers based on activity pattern and body size. The Dja-Ngoyla Complex is integral to the 178,000 km2 TRIDOM conservation landscape. The landscape is a global conservation priority for securing the future of great apes, forest elephant, a community of forest ungulates, and other threatened species in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers of threatened species often face the dilemma of whether to keep populations separate to conserve local adaptations and minimize the risk of outbreeding, or whether to manage populations jointly to reduce loss of genetic diversity and minimise inbreeding. In this study we examine genetic relatedness and diversity in three of the five last remaining wild populations of dama gazelle and a number of captive populations, using mtDNA control region and cytochrome b data. Despite the sampled populations belonging to the three putative subspecies, which are delineated according to phenotypes and geographical location, we find limited evidence for phylogeographical structure within the data and no genetic support for the putative subspecies. In the light of these data we discuss the relevance of inbreeding depression, outbreeding depression, adaptive variation, genetic drift, and phenotypic variation to the conservation of the dama gazelle and make some recommendations for its future conservation management. The genetic data suggest that the best conservation approach is to view the dama gazelle as a single species without subspecific divisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]