Long-term monitoring of large rainforest mammals in the Biosphere Reserve of Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire: Long-term monitoring Taï National Park
Abstract
Long-term wildlife monitoring programs are typically listed as a fundamental component of protected area (PA) management. Unfortunately, few PAs have wildlife population monitoring information available over extended periods of time, particularly in the many forested PAs throughout tropical Africa. Taï National Park in south-western Côte d’Ivoire is one of these few. Regular wildlife monitoring based on transect dung count sampling and direct observations began as early as 1977 in five sections of the park. In this paper, we present comparative descriptive results from two periods, 1977–1983 and 1995–2004. Several large mammal species, such as forest elephants and bongos, have experienced dramatic population declines over this time period, with some decline rates as high as 91%. Other species, such as duikers and leopards, seem to have better resisted the primary cause of these observed declines, hunting. In addition, we found that day counts delivered mostly significantly lower density estimates for several of the monitored species than night counts, which shows the importance of carefully interpreting the estimates from other studies. The continuation of wildlife monitoring will provide further insight into the efficiency of implemented park management with regard to the observed population changes.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Fecal standing crop counts along line transects are an established method for difficult-to-observe ungulates, including the pygmy hippo.
“Relative population densities were estimated by performing fecal standing crop counts along line transects, an established method for difficult-to-observe ungulates (Barnes, 2001; Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011), including the pygmy hippo (Roth et al., 2004).”
From Fine-scale habitat requirements of the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis): Implications for rainforest conservation in West Africa (2026) · cites this paper as Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011
The Djouroutou research zone is among the most densely inhabited areas known anywhere today for pygmy hippos.
“Our population density estimate of 4.2 pygmy hippos per km 2 places the Djouroutou research zone among the most densely inhabited areas known anywhere today (Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011; Roth et al., 2004), reaffirming the conservation value of research zones in West Africa, as Kely et al. (2021) already noted for the forest elephant.”
From Fine-scale habitat requirements of the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis): Implications for rainforest conservation in West Africa (2026) · cites this paper as Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011
High encounter rates of pygmy hippo have been reported in zones of secondary vegetation within Taï NP.
“High encounter rates in zones of secondary vegetation have also been reported within Taï NP (Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011), as well as sporadic instances of crop raiding on plantations in Sierra Leone (Conway, 2013).”
From Fine-scale habitat requirements of the pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis): Implications for rainforest conservation in West Africa (2026) · cites this paper as Hoppe-Dominik et al., 2011
The size of wild C. liberiensis populations remains unknown but is widely considered to be declining based on the evidence of continued habitat loss and reduced densities reported for Côte d'Ivoire.
“The size of wild populations remains unknown but is widely considered to be declining based on the evidence of continued habitat loss and reduced densities reported for Côte d'Ivoire (Roth et al. 2004;Hoppe-Dominik et al. 2011).”
From Choeropsis liberiensis (Artiodactyla: Hippopotamidae) (2019) · cites this paper as Hoppe-Dominik et al. 2011
In Côte d'Ivoire, indirect population surveys during 1977-1983 and 1995-2004 indicated a declining trend for C. liberiensis.
“In Côte d'Ivoire, indirect population surveys during 1977-1983 and 1995-2004 indicated a declining trend for C. liberiensis (Hoppe-Dominik et al. 2011).”
From Choeropsis liberiensis (Artiodactyla: Hippopotamidae) (2019) · cites this paper as Hoppe-Dominik et al. 2011
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Flacke, G. L., Tkalčić, S., Steck, B., Warren, K., & Martin, G. B. (2016) · Zoo Biology · doi:10.1002/zoo.21336 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Choeropsis liberiensis (Artiodactyla: Hippopotamidae)
Flacke, G. L., & Decher, J. (2019) · Mammalian Species · doi:10.1093/mspecies/sez017 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Kempkes, J. B., Si, Y., van ’t Zelfde, M., Digbeu, H. E. O., Bogui, E. B., Ouattara, K., Koné, I., & Paris, M. (2026) · Global Ecology and Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2026.e04346
- Authors
- Hoppe-Dominik, B., Kühl, H. S., Radl, G., & Fischer, F.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- University of Würzburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Kühl, Hjalmar S.
- ORCID
- Kühl, Hjalmar S.
- Venue
- African Journal of Ecology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-07-13
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 450-458
- ISSN
- 0141-6707 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2122523447
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- African Journal of Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
- Keywords
- Taï National Park, protected area management, population decline (ecology), forest elephants, bongo, duikers, leopard, hunting pressure, density estimation, tropical Africa
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
