Mapping suitable habitat for Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees in Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, North-Western Cameroon.

Great apes lose suitable habitats required for their reproduction and survival due to human activities across their distribution range in Africa. Little is known about habitat suitability of the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee [Pan troglodytes ellioti (Matschie, 1914)], particularly for populations inhabiting forest reserves in North-West Cameroon. To address this knowledge gap, we employed a common species distribution model (MaxEnt) to map and predict suitable habitats for the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee in Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, North-West Cameroon, based on environmental factors that potentially affect habitat suitability. We related these environmental factors to a dataset of chimpanzee occurrence points recorded during line transect and reconnaissance (recce) surveys in the forest reserve and surrounding forests.  Up to 91% of the study area is unsuitable for chimpanzees. Suitable habitats only represented 9% of the study area, with a high proportion of highly suitable habitats located outside the forest reserve. Elevation, secondary forests density, distance to villages and primary forests density were the most important predictors of habitat suitability for the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee. The probability of chimpanzee occurrence increased with elevation, secondary forest density and distance from villages and roads. Our study provides evidence that suitable chimpanzee habitat in the reserve is degraded, suggesting that efforts to maintain protected areas are insufficient. The reserve management plan needs to be improved to conserve the remaining suitable habitat and to avoid local extinction of this endangered subspecies.

Discovery of Novel Herpes Simplexviruses in Wild Gorillas, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees Supports Zoonotic Origin of HSV-2.

Viruses closely related to human pathogens can reveal the origins of human infectious diseases. Human herpes simplexvirus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2) are hypothesized to have arisen via host-virus codivergence and cross-species transmission. We report the discovery of novel herpes simplexviruses during a large-scale screening of fecal samples from wild gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that, contrary to expectation, simplexviruses from these African apes are all more closely related to HSV-2 than to HSV-1. Molecular clock-based hypothesis testing suggests the divergence between HSV-1 and the African great ape simplexviruses likely represents a codivergence event between humans and gorillas. The simplexviruses infecting African great apes subsequently experienced multiple cross-species transmission events over the past 3 My, the most recent of which occurred between humans and bonobos around 1 Ma. These findings revise our understanding of the origins of human herpes simplexviruses and suggest that HSV-2 is one of the earliest zoonotic pathogens.

Effects of Land cover change on Great Apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding Forest Management Units, South-East Cameroon. A 13 year time series analysis.

Understanding the effects of land cover change on wildlife distribution is very important for resource management and conservation planning. This paper aimed at detecting the effects of land cover change on great apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its bounded forest management units (FMUs). Data on great ape nests were collected in the field for the years 2001 and 2014 through distance sampling with line transects. Landsat TM images of South-East Cameroon for the years 2001 and 2014 were acquired from earth explorer and corrected atmospherically for proper visualization. An area of interest comprising the Lobéké National Park and its FMUs was extracted for classification and change detection. A comparison in great apes nest distribution and change per land cover change category was done for both years through point pattern analysis, whereas a time series analysis of the detected land cover change impacts on great apes nest distribution for a period of 13 years was modeled using logistic growth and regression equations in Vensim 7.2. The results could illustrate that, as land cover changes from one cover type in 2001 to another in 2014, increases or decreases in great apes nests were observed within each changed area.

Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest.

Anthrax is a globally important animal disease and zoonosis. Despite this, our current knowledge of anthrax ecology is largely limited to arid ecosystems, where outbreaks are most commonly reported. Here we show that the dynamics of an anthrax-causing agent, Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis, in a tropical rainforest have severe consequences for local wildlife communities. Using data and samples collected over three decades, we show that rainforest anthrax is a persistent and widespread cause of death for a broad range of mammalian hosts. We predict that this pathogen will accelerate the decline and possibly result in the extirpation of local chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) populations. We present the epidemiology of a cryptic pathogen and show that its presence has important implications for conservation.