Recent decline in suitable environmental conditions for A frican great apes
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Aim: To predict the distribution of suitable environmental conditions (SEC) for eight A frican great ape taxa for a first time period, the 1990s and then project it to a second time period, the 2000s; to assess the relative importance of factors influencing SEC distribution and to estimate rates of SEC loss, isolation and fragmentation over the last two decades. Location: Twenty‐two A frican great ape range countries. Methods: We extracted 15,051 presence localities collected between 1995 and 2010 from 68 different areas surveyed across the A frican ape range. We combined a maximum entropy algorithm and logistic regression to relate ape presence information to environmental and human impact variables from the 1990s with a resolution of 5 × 5 km across the entire ape range. We then made SEC projections for the 2000s using updated human impact variables. Results: Total SEC area was approximately 2,015,480 and 1,807,653 km 2 in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. Loss of predicted SEC appeared highest for Cross River gorillas (−59%), followed by eastern gorillas (−52%), western gorillas (−32%), bonobos (−29%), central chimpanzees (−17%) and western chimpanzees (−11%). SEC for N igeria‐C ameroon chimpanzees and eastern chimpanzees was not greatly reduced. Except for C ross R iver and eastern gorillas, the number of SEC patches did not change significantly, suggesting that SEC loss was caused mainly by patch size reduction. Main conclusions: The first continent‐wide perspective of A frican ape SEC distribution shows dramatic declines in recent years. The model has clear limitations for use at small geographic scales, given the quality of available data and the coarse resolution of predictions. However, at the large scale it has potential for informing international policymaking, mitigation of resource extraction and infrastructure development, as well as for spatial prioritization of conservation effort and evaluating conservation effectiveness.
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The remaining forests harbour a number of threatened large mammals, some of which range beyond the bounds of protected areas.
“The remaining forests harbour a number of threatened large mammals, some of which are known to range beyond the bounds of protected areas (Merz, ; Junker et al., , ).”
From A mix of community-based conservation and protected forests is needed for the survival of the Endangered pygmy hippopotamus<i>Choeropsis liberiensis</i> (2017) · cites this paper as Junker et al., 2012
The Introduction describes great apes in remaining forest landscapes and reports chimpanzees throughout Sierra Leone, including a landscape dominated by agricultural fields. It does not establish that those animals range beyond protected-area boundaries, or document that pattern for the other threatened large mammals in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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Hillers, A., Buchanan, G. M., Garteh, J. C., Tommy, S. M., Fofana, M. L., & Lindsell, J. A. (2017) · Oryx · doi:10.1017/s003060531600020x · Cited by 10 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Junker, J., Blake, S., Boesch, C., Campbell, G., Toit, L. D., Duvall, C., Ekobo, A., Etoga, G., Galat‐Luong, A., Gamys, J., Ganas‐Swaray, J., Gatti, S., Ghiurghi, A., Granier, N., Hart, J., Head, J., Herbinger, I., Hicks, T. C., Huijbregts, B., Imong, I. S., Kuempel, N., Lahm, S., Lindsell, J., Maisels, F., McLennan, M., Martinez, L., Morgan, B., Morgan, D., Mulindahabi, F., Mundry, R., N'Goran, K. P., Normand, E., Ntongho, A., Okon, D. T., Petre, C., Plumptre, A., Rainey, H., Regnaut, S., Sanz, C., Stokes, E., Tondossama, A., Tranquilli, S., Sunderland‐Groves, J., Walsh, P., Warren, Y., Williamson, E. A., & Kuehl, H. S.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (DE)
- Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (DE)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- WWF Cameroon (CM)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Conservation International (US)
- Zoological Society of Milwaukee 10005 W. Bluemound Rd. Milwaukee WI 53226 USA
- West African Primate Conservation Action PO Box GP 1319 Accra Ghana
- AGRECO Rome Italy
- University of Liège (BE)
- Lukuru Foundation (CD)
- WWF Germany (DE)
- WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office (CARPO) Libreville Gabon
- Wildlife Conservation Society (US)
- Zoological Society of London Regent's Park London NW1 4RY UK
- Institut de Recherche en Ecologie Tropicale Makokou Gabon
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (GB)
- University of Stirling (GB)
- Oxford Brookes University (GB)
- Ewha Womans University (KR)
- Zoological Society of San Diego (US)
- Wild Chimpanzee Foundation Deutscher Platz 6 04103 Leipzig Germany
- Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves 06 BP 426 Abidjan 06 Côte d'Ivoire
- Forests and Livelihoods Programme Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) PO Box 0113 Bogor 16000 Indonesia
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kuehl, Hjalmar S.
- ORCID
- Junker, Jessica
- Blake, Stephen
- Boesch, Christophe
- Campbell, Geneviève
- Galat‐Luong, Anh
- Hart, John
- Head, Josephine
- Hicks, Thurston Cleveland
- Imong, Inaoyom S.
- Lindsell, Jeremy
- Maisels, Fiona
- McLennan, Matthew
- Morgan, Bethan
- Morgan, David
- Mundry, Roger
- Plumptre, Andrew
- Rainey, Hugo
- Regnaut, Sébastien
- Sanz, Crickette
- Williamson, Elizabeth A.
- Venue
- Diversity and Distributions
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-09-23
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1077-1091
- ISSN
- 0967-9952 (ISSN-L)
- 1366-9516
- 1472-4642
- OpenAlex
- W2082973052
- Cited by
- 161
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 10.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Diversity and Distributions (publishedVersion)
- Stirling Online Research Repository (University of Stirling) (submittedVersion)
- ORBi (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Arcus Foundation
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Keywords
- African apes, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, habitat isolation, habitat suitability projections, Cross River gorilla, western gorilla, bonobos, chimpanzees, eastern chimpanzees, anthropogenic impacts, conservation prioritization
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