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Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Niche theory predicts that ecologically similar species can coexist through multidimensional niche partitioning. However, owing to the challenges of accounting for both abiotic and biotic processes in ecological niche modelling, the underlying mechanisms that facilitate coexistence of competing species are poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated potential mechanisms underlying the coexistence of ecologically similar bird species in a biodiversity-rich transboundary montane forest in east-central Africa by computing niche overlap indices along an environmental elevation gradient, diet, forest strata, activity patterns and within-habitat segregation across horizontal space. We found strong support for abiotic environmental habitat niche partitioning, with 55% of species pairs having separate elevation niches. For the remaining species pairs that exhibited similar elevation niches, we found that within-habitat segregation across horizontal space and to a lesser extent vertical forest strata provided the most likely mechanisms of species coexistence. Coexistence of ecologically similar species within a highly diverse montane forest was determined primarily by abiotic factors (e.g. environmental elevation gradient) that characterize the Grinnellian niche and secondarily by biotic factors (e.g. vertical and horizontal segregation within habitats) that describe the Eltonian niche. Thus, partitioning across multiple levels of spatial organization is a key mechanism of coexistence in diverse communities.

Previous attempts to quantify tree abundance at global scale have largely neglected the role of local competition in modulating the influence of climate and soils on tree density. Here, we evaluated whether mean tree size in the world's natural forests alters the effect of global productivity on tree density. In doing so, we gathered a vast set of forest inventories including >3000 sampling plots from 23 well-conserved areas worldwide to encompass (as much as possible) the main forest biomes on Earth. We evidence that latitudinal productivity patterns of tree density become evident as large trees become dominant. Global estimates of tree abundance should, therefore, consider dependencies of latitudinal sources of variability on local biotic influences to avoid underestimating the number of trees on Earth and to properly evaluate the functional and social consequences., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Many threats to biodiversity can be predicted and are well mapped but others are uncertain in their extent, impact on biodiversity, and ability for conservation efforts to address, making them more difficult to account for in spatial conservation planning efforts, and as a result, they are often ignored. Here, we use a spatial prioritisation analysis to evaluate the consequences of considering only relatively well-mapped threats to biodiversity and compare this with planning scenarios that also account for more uncertain threats (in this case mining and armed conflict) under different management strategies. We evaluate three management strategies to address these more uncertain threats: 1. to ignore them; 2. avoid them; or 3. specifically target actions towards them, first individually and then simultaneously to assess the impact of their inclusion in spatial prioritisations. We apply our approach to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and identify priority areas for conserving biodiversity and carbon sequestration services. We found that a strategy that avoids addressing threats of mining and armed conflict more often misses important opportunities for biodiversity conservation, compared to a strategy that targets action towards areas under threat (assuming a biodiversity benefit is possible). We found that considering mining and armed conflict threats to biodiversity independently rather than simultaneously results in 13 800-14 800 km 2 and 15 700-25 100 km 2 of potential missed conservation opportunities when undertaking threat-avoiding and threat-targeting management strategies, respectively. Our analysis emphasises the importance of considering all threats that can be mapped in spatial conservation prioritisation., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Irreplaceability is a concept used to describe how close a site is to being essential for achieving conservation targets. Current methods for measuring irreplaceability are based on representative combinations of sites, giving them an extrinsic nature and exponential computational requirements. Surrogate measures based on efficiency (complementarity) are often used as alternatives, but they were never intended for this purpose and do not measure irreplaceability. Current approaches used to estimate irreplaceability have key limitations. Some of these are a result of the tools used, but some are due to the nature of the current definition of irreplaceability. For irreplaceability to be stable and useful for conservation purposes and to resolve limitations, irreplaceability measures should adhere to five axioms; baseline coherence, monotonic responsiveness, proportional responsiveness, intrinsic stability, and bounded outputs. We designed a robust method for measuring a site's proximity to irreplaceability that adheres to these requirements and used it to develop the first systematic global map of irreplaceability based on data for terrestrial vertebrates (n = 29,837 species, >1 million grid cells). At least 3.5% of land surface was highly irreplaceable, and 47.6% of highly irreplaceable cells were contained in 12 countries. More generous thresholds of irreplaceability flag greater portions of land surface that would still be realistic to protect under current global objectives. Irreplaceable sites should form a critical component of any global conservation plan and should be part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's post2020 Global Biodiversity Framework strategy, forming part of the 30% protection by 2030 target that is gaining support. The reliable identification of irreplaceable sites will be crucial to halting extinctions., (© 2021 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Species distributions are influenced by processes occurring at multiple spatial scales. It is therefore insufficient to model species distribution at a single geographic scale, as this does not provide the necessary understanding of determining factors. Instead, multiple approaches are needed, each differing in spatial extent, grain, and research objective. Here, we present the first attempt to model continent-wide great ape density distribution. We used site-level estimates of African great ape abundance to (1) identify socioeconomic and environmental factors that drive densities at the continental scale, and (2) predict range-wide great ape density. We collated great ape abundance estimates from 156 sites and defined 134 pseudo-absence sites to represent additional absence locations. The latter were based on locations of unsuitable environmental conditions for great apes, and on existing literature. We compiled seven socioeconomic and environmental covariate layers and fitted a generalized linear model to investigate their influence on great ape abundance. We used an Akaike-weighted average of full and subset models to predict the range-wide density distribution of African great apes for the year 2015. Great ape densities were lowest where there were high Human Footprint and Gross Domestic Product values; the highest predicted densities were in Central Africa, and the lowest in West Africa. Only 10.7% of the total predicted population was found in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Category I and II protected areas. For 16 out of 20 countries, our estimated abundances were largely in line with those from previous studies. For four countries, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, and South Sudan, the estimated populations were excessively high. We propose further improvements to the model to overcome survey and predictor data limitations, which would enable a temporally dynamic approach for monitoring great apes across their range based on key indicators., (© 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Paleoclimate reconstructions have enhanced our understanding of how past climates have shaped present-day biodiversity. We hypothesize that the geographic extent of Pleistocene forest refugia and suitable habitat fluctuated significantly in time during the late Quaternary for chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Using bioclimatic variables representing monthly temperature and precipitation estimates, past human population density data, and an extensive database of georeferenced presence points, we built a model of changing habitat suitability for chimpanzees at fine spatio-temporal scales dating back to the Last Interglacial (120,000 BP). Our models cover a spatial resolution of 0.0467° (approximately 5.19 km 2 grid cells) and a temporal resolution of between 1000 and 4000 years. Using our model, we mapped habitat stability over time using three approaches, comparing our modeled stability estimates to existing knowledge of Afrotropical refugia, as well as contemporary patterns of major keystone tropical food resources used by chimpanzees, figs (Moraceae), and palms (Arecacae). Results show habitat stability congruent with known glacial refugia across Africa, suggesting their extents may have been underestimated for chimpanzees, with potentially up to approximately 60,000 km 2 of previously unrecognized glacial refugia. The refugia we highlight coincide with higher species richness for figs and palms. Our results provide spatio-temporally explicit insights into the role of refugia across the chimpanzee range, forming the empirical foundation for developing and testing hypotheses about behavioral, ecological, and genetic diversity with additional data. This methodology can be applied to other species and geographic areas when sufficient data are available., (© 2021 The Authors. American Journal of Primatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) have declined drastically across their range in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Survey data analysed in 2016 estimated a 77% decline in numbers between the mid- 1990s and 2016 and predicted that Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP), and the contiguous Oku Community Reserve (OCR) held much of the global population. An estimate of 3800 Grauer's gorillas was made across its range at that time. Here, we publish the most extensive survey of Grauer's gorilla numbers to date, using nest counts from 230 line transects across KBNP and OCR to derive more accurate estimates of both gorilla and chimpanzee numbers. Gorilla numbers were estimated from line transects at 1,571 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 824-2,993) within KBNP and at 2,244 (95% CI: 1,471-3,422) in OCR. Eastern chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) numbers were estimated at 2,500 (95% CI: 1,804-3,462) in KBNP and 687 (95% CI: 472-999) in OCR. Estimates of total numbers for the survey area were 5,252 (95% CI: 3,687-7,481) Grauer's gorillas and 4,275 (95% CI: 3,322-5,502) eastern chimpanzees. Chimpanzee numbers were not significantly different from the estimates in the mid-1990s but the gorillas had significantly declined, mostly in KBNP. Modeled densities of these apes indicated that distances to mines, villages, or roads significantly explained part of the distribution of these apes, with higher densities also found in more rugged and remote sites. Other primates have all declined in this region, likely due to bushmeat hunting, especially the Endangered Ulindi River Red Colobus Piliocolobus lulindicus. These results confirm the negative impact of insecurity on Grauer's gorilla but indicate that the population declines may not be as great as previously feared. Using our revised gorilla density estimate we revise the original estimate of global numbers from 3,800 to 6,800 individuals., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The Convention on Biological Diversity's post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will probably include a goal to stabilize and restore the status of species. Its delivery would be facilitated by making the actions required to halt and reverse species loss spatially explicit. Here, we develop a species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric that is scalable across species, threats and geographies. STAR quantifies the contributions that abating threats and restoring habitats in specific places offer towards reducing extinction risk. While every nation can contribute towards halting biodiversity loss, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, Madagascar and Brazil combined have stewardship over 31% of total STAR values for terrestrial amphibians, birds and mammals. Among actions, sustainable crop production and forestry dominate, contributing 41% of total STAR values for these taxonomic groups. Key Biodiversity Areas cover 9% of the terrestrial surface but capture 47% of STAR values. STAR could support governmental and non-state actors in quantifying their contributions to meeting science-based species targets within the framework.

Community occupancy models estimate species-specific parameters while sharing information across species by treating parameters as sampled from a common distribution. When communities consist of discrete groups, shrinkage of estimates toward the community mean can mask differences among groups. Infinite-mixture models using a Dirichlet process (DP) distribution, in which the number of latent groups is estimated from the data, have been proposed as a solution. In addition to community structure, these models estimate species similarity, which allows testing hypotheses about whether traits drive species response to environmental conditions. We develop a community occupancy model (COM) using a DP distribution to model species-level parameters. Because clustering algorithms are sensitive to dimensionality and distinctiveness of clusters, we conducted a simulation study to explore performance of the DP-COM with different dimensions (i.e., different numbers of model parameters with species-level DP random effects) and under varying cluster differences. Because the DP-COM is computationally expensive, we compared its estimates to a COM with a normal random species effect. We further applied the DP-COM model to a bird data set from Uganda. Estimates of the number of clusters and species cluster identity improved with increasing difference among clusters and increasing dimensions of the DP; but the number of clusters was always overestimated. Estimates of number of sites occupied and species and community-level covariate coefficients on occupancy probability were generally unbiased with (near-) nominal 95% Bayesian Credible Interval coverage. Accuracy of estimates from the normal and the DP-COM was similar. The DP-COM clustered 166 bird species into 27 clusters regarding their affiliation with open or woodland habitat and distance to oil wells. Estimates of covariate coefficients were similar between a normal and the DP-COM. Except sunbirds, species within a family were not more similar in their response to these covariates than the overall community. Given that estimates were consistent between the normal and the DP-COM, and considering the computational burden for the DP models, we recommend using the DP-COM only when the analysis focuses on community structure and species similarity, as these quantities can only be obtained under the DP-COM., (© 2020 by the Ecological Society of America.)

The idea that tropical forest and savanna are alternative states is crucial to how we manage these biomes and predict their future under global change. Large-scale empirical evidence for alternative stable states is limited, however, and comes mostly from the multimodal distribution of structural aspects of vegetation. These approaches have been criticized, as structure alone cannot separate out wetter savannas from drier forests for example, and there are also technical challenges to mapping vegetation structure in unbiased ways. Here, we develop an alternative approach to delimit the climatic envelope of the two biomes in Africa using tree species lists gathered for a large number of forest and savanna sites distributed across the continent. Our analyses confirm extensive climatic overlap of forest and savanna, supporting the alternative stable states hypothesis for Africa, and this result is corroborated by paleoecological evidence. Further, we find the two biomes to have highly divergent tree species compositions and to represent alternative compositional states. This allowed us to classify tree species as forest vs. savanna specialists, with some generalist species that span both biomes. In conjunction with georeferenced herbarium records, we mapped the forest and savanna distributions across Africa and quantified their environmental limits, which are primarily related to precipitation and seasonality, with a secondary contribution of fire. These results are important for the ongoing efforts to restore African ecosystems, which depend on accurate biome maps to set appropriate targets for the restored states but also provide empirical evidence for broad-scale bistability., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

More tree species can increase the carbon storage capacity of forests (here referred to as the more species hypothesis) through increased tree productivity and tree abundance resulting from complementarity, but they can also be the consequence of increased tree abundance through increased available energy (more individuals hypothesis). To test these two contrasting hypotheses, we analyse the most plausible pathways in the richness-abundance relationship and its stability along global climatic gradients. We show that positive effect of species richness on tree abundance only prevails in eight of the twenty-three forest regions considered in this study. In the other forest regions, any benefit from having more species is just as likely (9 regions) or even less likely (6 regions) than the effects of having more individuals. We demonstrate that diversity effects prevail in the most productive environments, and abundance effects become dominant towards the most limiting conditions. These findings can contribute to refining cost-effective mitigation strategies based on fostering carbon storage through increased tree diversity. Specifically, in less productive environments, mitigation measures should promote abundance of locally adapted and stress tolerant tree species instead of increasing species richness.

Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework. The Conservation Evidence project has summarized thousands of studies testing conservation interventions and compiled these as synopses for various habitats and taxa. In the present article, we analyzed the interventions assessed in the primate synopsis and compared these with other taxa. We found that despite intensive efforts to study primates and the extensive threats they face, less than 1% of primate studies evaluated conservation effectiveness. The studies often lacked quantitative data, failed to undertake postimplementation monitoring of populations or individuals, or implemented several interventions at once. Furthermore, the studies were biased toward specific taxa, geographic regions, and interventions. We describe barriers for testing primate conservation interventions and propose actions to improve the conservation evidence base to protect this endangered and globally important taxon., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences.)

In conservation understanding the drivers of behavior and developing robust interventions to promote behavioral change is challenging and requires a multifaceted approach. This is particularly true for efforts to address illegal wildlife use, where pervasive-and sometimes simplistic-narratives often obscure complex realities. We used an indirect questioning approach, the unmatched count technique, to investigate the drivers and prevalence of wildlife crime in communities surrounding 2 national parks in Uganda and combined scenario interviews and a choice experiment to predict the performance of potential interventions designed to tackle these crimes. Although poverty is often assumed to be a key driver of wildlife crime, we found that better-off households and those subject to human-wildlife conflict and those that do not receive any benefits from the parks' tourism revenue sharing were more likely to be involved in certain types of wildlife crime, especially illegal hunting. The interventions predicted to have the greatest impact on reducing local participation in wildlife crime were those that directly addressed the drivers including, mitigating damage caused by wildlife and generating financial benefits for park-adjacent households. Our triangulated approach provided insights into complex and hard-to-access behaviors and highlighted the importance of going beyond single-driver narratives., (© 2019 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Herpesviruses are thought to have evolved in very close association with their hosts. This is notably the case for cytomegaloviruses (CMVs; genus Cytomegalovirus ) infecting primates, which exhibit a strong signal of co-divergence with their hosts. Some herpesviruses are however known to have crossed species barriers. Based on a limited sampling of CMV diversity in the hominine (African great ape and human) lineage, we hypothesized that chimpanzees and gorillas might have mutually exchanged CMVs in the past. Here, we performed a comprehensive molecular screening of all 9 African great ape species/subspecies, using 675 fecal samples collected from wild animals. We identified CMVs in eight species/subspecies, notably generating the first CMV sequences from bonobos. We used this extended dataset to test competing hypotheses with various degrees of co-divergence/number of host switches while simultaneously estimating the dates of these events in a Bayesian framework. The model best supported by the data involved the transmission of a gorilla CMV to the panine (chimpanzee and bonobo) lineage and the transmission of a panine CMV to the gorilla lineage prior to the divergence of chimpanzees and bonobos, more than 800,000 years ago. Panine CMVs then co-diverged with their hosts. These results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that viruses with a double-stranded DNA genome (including other herpesviruses, adenoviruses, and papillomaviruses) often jumped between hominine lineages over the last few million years.

Protected areas (PAs) play an important role in conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, yet their effectiveness is undermined by funding shortfalls. Using lions ( Panthera leo ) as a proxy for PA health, we assessed available funding relative to budget requirements for PAs in Africa's savannahs. We compiled a dataset of 2015 funding for 282 state-owned PAs with lions. We applied three methods to estimate the minimum funding required for effective conservation of lions, and calculated deficits. We estimated minimum required funding as $978/km 2 per year based on the cost of effectively managing lions in nine reserves by the African Parks Network; $1,271/km 2 based on modeled costs of managing lions at ≥50% carrying capacity across diverse conditions in 115 PAs; and $2,030/km 2 based on Packer et al.'s [Packer et al. (2013) Ecol Lett 16:635-641] cost of managing lions in 22 unfenced PAs. PAs with lions require a total of $1.2 to $2.4 billion annually, or ∼$1,000 to 2,000/km 2 , yet received only $381 million annually, or a median of $200/km 2 Ninety-six percent of range countries had funding deficits in at least one PA, with 88 to 94% of PAs with lions funded insufficiently. In funding-deficit PAs, available funding satisfied just 10 to 20% of PA requirements on average, and deficits total $0.9 to $2.1 billion. African governments and the international community need to increase the funding available for management by three to six times if PAs are to effectively conserve lions and other species and provide vital ecological and economic benefits to neighboring communities., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Effective conservation management interventions must combat threats and deliver benefits at costs that can be achieved within limited budgets. Considerable effort has focused on measuring the potential benefits of conservation interventions, but explicit quantification of the financial costs of implementation is rare. Even when costs have been quantified, haphazard and inconsistent reporting means published values are difficult to interpret. This reporting deficiency hinders progress toward a collective understanding of the financial costs of management interventions across projects and thus limits the ability to identify efficient solutions to conservation problems or attract adequate funding. We devised a standardized approach to describing financial costs reported for conservation interventions. The standards call for researchers and practitioners to describe the objective and outcome, context and methods, and scale of costed interventions, and to state which categories of costs are included and the currency and date for reported costs. These standards aim to provide enough contextual information that readers and future users can interpret the cost data appropriately. We suggest these standards be adopted by major conservation organizations, conservation science institutions, and journals so that cost reporting is comparable among studies. This would support shared learning and enhance the ability to identify and perform cost-effective conservation., (© 2018 Society for Conservation Biology.)

This article contains data on the estimated ranges of endemic species in the Albertine Rift both currently and under future climate change related to the research article entitled "Conservation of the endemic species of the Albertine Rift under future climate change" (Ayebare et al., 2018) [1]. Biodiversity surveys focused mainly on 5 taxa: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and plants. A combination of line transects, point counts, recce walks, camera traps, visual encounter surveys, qualitative surveys and appropriate capture methods (mist nets, Sherman traps, pitfall traps) were used to survey the different taxa and provide point location data for each species. The biodiversity surveys were conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society starting in the late 1990s. Additional species data were sourced from individual researchers and institutions. The current and future species ranges were estimated using the Maximum Entropy '(Maxent)' species distribution modeling algorithm. The areas of suitable habitat (current and future) of 162 endemic species for 5 taxa (birds (40), mammals (33), plants (49), reptiles (11), amphibians (29), the extent of occurrence (EOO), area of occupancy (AOO), percentage range contraction due to climate change and to agriculture conversion of suitable habitat for each species are given in Table S1. Threshold geotiffs are also provided for each species modeled and made available at www.albertinerift.org.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)-has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

Grauer's gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), the World's largest primate, is confined to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is threatened by civil war and insecurity. During the war, armed groups in mining camps relied on hunting bushmeat, including gorillas. Insecurity and the presence of several militia groups across Grauer's gorilla's range made it very difficult to assess their population size. Here we use a novel method that enables rigorous assessment of local community and ranger-collected data on gorilla occupancy to evaluate the impacts of civil war on Grauer's gorilla, which prior to the war was estimated to number 16,900 individuals. We show that gorilla numbers in their stronghold of Kahuzi-Biega National Park have declined by 87%. Encounter rate data of gorilla nests at 10 sites across its range indicate declines of 82-100% at six of these sites. Spatial occupancy analysis identifies three key areas as the most critical sites for the remaining populations of this ape and that the range of this taxon is around 19,700 km2. We estimate that only 3,800 Grauer's gorillas remain in the wild, a 77% decline in one generation, justifying its elevation to Critically Endangered status on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species., Competing Interests: The analysis presented in this paper was funded by the ARCUS Foundation using data collected by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Fauna and Flora International and Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature and funded by a variety of donors listed in the financial disclosure section. Two of these funders, KfW and World Bank are a commercial source of funds but this does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.” (as detailed online in our guide for authors http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests) as the IP and data sharing rights are owned by WCS.

The species diversity of the frog genus Cardioglossa (family Arthroleptidae) is concentrated in the Lower Guinean Forest Zone of Central Africa with most of the 19 species occurring in Cameroon and neighboring countries (Amiet 1972a,b; Blackburn 2008; Hirschfeld et al. 2015). These small leaf-litter frogs are typically found in primary or secondary forest, have shrill whistling calls, are characterized by a variety of color patterns, and lay terrestrial eggs that hatch and develop into elongate, stream-adapted tadpoles (Amiet 1972a,b, 1973; Rödel et al. 2001; Hirschfeld et al. 2012). One of the most poorly known species-the Bururi Long-fingered Frog Cardioglossa cyaneospila Laurent, 1950-is also among the most geographically peripheral to the rest of the species diversity. To date, it is known only from two locations in Burundi and four in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, regions in which armed conflicts have long hampered scientific research. In this short contribution, we (1) document both new and long unpublished records of C. cyaneospila, associate these with known museum records, and extend its geographic range, (2) highlight fruitful areas for future field surveys based on predicting an environmental envelope for this species, and (3) summarize what little is known of its natural history.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the cause of chytridiomycosis, is a pathogenic fungus that is found worldwide and is a major contributor to amphibian declines and extinctions. We report results of a comprehensive effort to assess the distribution and threat of Bd in one of the Earth's most important biodiversity hotspots, the Albertine Rift in central Africa. In herpetological surveys conducted between 2010 and 2014, 1018 skin swabs from 17 amphibian genera in 39 sites across the Albertine Rift were tested for Bd by PCR. Overall, 19.5% of amphibians tested positive from all sites combined. Skin tissue samples from 163 amphibians were examined histologically; of these two had superficial epidermal intracorneal fungal colonization and lesions consistent with the disease chytridiomycosis. One amphibian was found dead during the surveys, and all others encountered appeared healthy. We found no evidence for Bd-induced mortality events, a finding consistent with other studies. To gain a historical perspective about Bd in the Albertine Rift, skin swabs from 232 museum-archived amphibians collected as voucher specimens from 1925-1994 were tested for Bd. Of these, one sample was positive; an Itombwe River frog (Phrynobatrachus asper) collected in 1950 in the Itombwe highlands. This finding represents the earliest record of Bd in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We modeled the distribution of Bd in the Albertine Rift using MaxEnt software, and trained our model for improved predictability. Our model predicts that Bd is currently widespread across the Albertine Rift, with moderate habitat suitability extending into the lowlands. Under climatic modeling scenarios our model predicts that optimal habitat suitability of Bd will decrease causing a major range contraction of the fungus by 2080. Our baseline data and modeling predictions are important for comparative studies, especially if significant changes in amphibian health status or climactic conditions are encountered in the future.

Within protected areas, biodiversity loss is often a consequence of illegal resource use. Understanding the patterns and extent of illegal activities is therefore essential for effective law enforcement and prevention of biodiversity declines. We used extensive data, commonly collected by ranger patrols in many protected areas, and Bayesian hierarchical models to identify drivers, trends, and distribution of multiple illegal activities within the Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area (QECA), Uganda. Encroachment (e.g., by pastoralists with cattle) and poaching of noncommercial animals (e.g., snaring bushmeat) were the most prevalent illegal activities within the QECA. Illegal activities occurred in different areas of the QECA. Poaching of noncommercial animals was most widely distributed within the national park. Overall, ecological covariates, although significant, were not useful predictors for occurrence of illegal activities. Instead, the location of illegal activities in previous years was more important. There were significant increases in encroachment and noncommercial plant harvesting (nontimber products) during the study period (1999-2012). We also found significant spatiotemporal variation in the occurrence of all activities. Our results show the need to explicitly model ranger patrol effort to reduce biases from existing uncorrected or capture per unit effort analyses. Prioritization of ranger patrol strategies is needed to target illegal activities; these strategies are determined by protected area managers, and therefore changes at a site-level can be implemented quickly. These strategies should also be informed by the location of past occurrences of illegal activity: the most useful predictor of future events. However, because spatial and temporal changes in illegal activities occurred, regular patrols throughout the protected area, even in areas of low occurrence, are also required., (© 2015 Society for Conservation Biology.)

In 1931, Ernst Ahl described two species of reed frogs inhabiting montane forests of the Albertine Rift in East Africa, Hyperolius alticola and H. discodactylus, which were synonymized two decades later by Raymond Laurent. Since then, this revision has been questioned repeatedly, but taxonomists have been reluctant to make a conclusive decision on the matter, especially since the type material of H. alticola was reported as being lost. Here, we examine the rediscovered type material of H. alticola and reassess the validity of Laurent's synonymy using morphological data from historic and new collections including all available type material, call recordings and molecular data from animals collected on recent expeditions. We find evidence for a northern and southern genetic clade, a divide that is somewhat supported by diverging morphology as well. However, no distinction in advertisement calls could be recovered to support this split and both genetic and morphological differences between geographic units are marginal and not always congruent and thus more likely reflect population-level variation. We therefore conclude that H. alticola is not a valid taxon and should continue to be treated as a synonym of H. discodactylus. Finally, we also report on newly collected material from outside the species known range, with first records of this species from Burundi.

Monitoring temporal and spatial changes in the resource availability of endangered species contributes to their conservation. The number of critically endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Virunga Volcano population has doubled over the past three decades, but no studies have examined how food availability has changed during that period. First, we assessed if the plant species consumed by the gorillas have changed in abundance and distribution during the past two decades. In 2009-2010, we replicated a study conducted in 1988-1989 by measuring the frequency, density, and biomass of plant species consumed by the gorillas in 496 plots (ca. 6 km(2)) in the Karisoke study area in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. We expected to observe a decreased presence of major gorilla food plants as a likely result of density-dependent overharvesting by gorillas. Among the five most frequently consumed species (composing approximately 70% of the gorilla's diet, excluding bamboo), two have decreased in availability and abundance, while three have increased. Some species have undergone shifts in their altitudinal distribution, possibly due to regional climatic changes. Second, we made baseline measurements of food availability in a larger area currently utilized by the gorillas. In the extended sampling (n = 473 plots) area (ca. 25 km(2) ), of the five most frequently consumed species, two were not significantly different in frequency from the re-sampled area, while two occurred significantly less frequently, and one occurred significantly more frequently. We discuss the potential impact of gorilla-induced herbivory on changes of vegetation abundance. The changes in the species most commonly consumed by the gorillas could affect their nutrient intake and stresses the importance of monitoring the interrelation among plant population dynamics, species density, and resource use., (© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Primate census techniques have been developed over the past 35-40 years yet there is still some confusion and great variation in the methods used. This precludes comparisons between sites where different techniques have been used. This paper discusses the variations between the methods that seem to be practiced currently and then describes a census of primates in the forests of western Uganda. Primate density and biomass varied greatly between forests as well as within forests and this is probably related to food availability. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) density was strongly correlated with nest encounter rates from reconnaissance walks in the forest. This result can be used to estimate chimpanzee density in forests where it is difficult to survey this species (e.g., due to security reasons). A total of 4,980 chimpanzee was estimated for Uganda which is higher than previously guessed, but still of conservation concern. Only four forests had more than 500 individuals which gives concern for long-term population viability.

Data on nesting behavior and nests of the Sonso community of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) living in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, were collected between October 1995 and December 1996. Analysis of the selection of nests shows a preference for particular tree species, especially Cynometra alexandri. Male chimpanzees nested lower than females. Day nests were found to be structurally simpler than night nests and were built in tree species used for feeding, at the same height as feeding activity. Day and night nests serve different functions, and should be clearly distinguished in studies of nesting behavior., (Copyright 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Fruits, leaves and bark forming part of the diet of chimpanzees were collected and it was noted whether samples were of a kind being eaten or not eaten. Samples were dried and analysed for condensed tannin content and for three sugars, glucose, sucrose and fructose. It was found that chimpanzees did not select foods according to the level of tannins but did so according to the levels of sugars, preferring the higher levels. Fig seeds contained higher tannin levels than fig pulp, and the chimpanzees made oral boli ("wadges") of fig seeds which they spat out. Two fig species were compared: the one with lower tannin and higher sugar content was preferred. The bark of one tree species often eaten contained high levels of tannins but also contained sugars. Young leaves with lower tannin levels were preferred to mature leaves with higher levels. Chimpanzees appear to be able to tolerate higher tannin levels than three monkey species in this forest, and considerably higher levels than marmosets (Callitrichidae).