Congo is walk in the park for area gorilla researcher

Thanks to Cleve H for the link!
from my suburban life.com
By Joe Sinopoli

Michael Stucker’s journey into the heart of the Congo jungle actually started as a wide-eyed boy, jockeying to get a better view of the animals at Brookfield Zoo.

“It was that gaze, the gaze of the gorillas,” he said. “And that struck a chord and made me want to learn more about them and protect these animals.”

Now 34, Stucker finds himself quietly stalking Western Lowland gorillas on their own ground — not as a hunter, but as a conservationist of the largest of the primates.

Stucker soon will head from Brookfield back to the Republic of Congo and Nouabale-Ndoki National Park as a volunteer researcher for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Founded in 1885, the society manages about 500 conservation projects in more than 60 countries across the globe.

The Riverside Brookfield High School graduate — who also holds two bachelor’s degrees in psychology and primate behavior and ecology from Central Washington University in Washington state — became enamored with the great apes as a college student.

He was an intern caretaker there with the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, home of Washoe, the first chimp to learn sign language. During Stucker’s final semester, he was asked to prepare a lengthy presentation on gorillas.
And that, as they say, was all it took.

Stucker fired off a resume to the WCS’s Mondika Research Center at Nouabale-Ndoki National Park three months after he graduated college in August 2009 and arrived in the Congo on Jan. 1, 2010, as a volunteer research assistant. He stayed there for 16 months and is now counting the days until he returns May 26 as a paid staff member and site manager/project coordinator.

“I’ve been enjoying the luxuries of life and appreciating running water, telephone and Internet access and eating when and whatever I like,” he said.

A day in the jungle
Michael Stucker’s day starts early in the jungle.

At 4:30 a.m., he’s up and about checking the camp, making sure the cooks are preparing food and the rest of the staff has rolled out of their cots and shaken the scorpions from their shoes.

He then puts on his nurse’s cap and tends to the medical needs of the camp staff, including 10 pygmies from the Ba’Aka tribe, two Congolese assistants and one armed guard. Cuts and scrapes are cleaned, medicated and dressed. After all, this is Africa, and something that starts as small as a scratch can quickly get infected.

By 6:30 a.m., the contingent breaks into teams, each with three trackers and one of the assistants. One team begins the job of tracking the gorillas, which takes anywhere from60 to 90 minutes.

At that point, one of the trackers is sent back to camp for Team 2, which then sets out to relieve Team 1. The relief team then heads back to camp at 5 p.m. after quietly following the gorilla group for the day.

During that time, the teams collect data on behavior, diet, copulation and interactions between the primates. Stucker analyzes and enters the data, which is then relayed back to a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society for review.


Tourism helps fund primate research
Ecotourism plays a substantial role in the sustainability of the park. Run by the Congolese Ministry of Forestry Economy and the Environment and WCS, the ecotourism program provides revenue essential to the animals’ welfare and running of the camp, as well as anti-poaching efforts.

Groups are formed that allow two to four tourists to view gorillas for one hour per day, so as not to stress the animals, Stucker said. The group keeps a minimum of 70 meters from gorillas, and everyone is required to wear a surgical mask to minimize infecting animals with airborne diseases. Gorillas are particularly susceptible to human respiratory diseases.

In camp, rations for humans are limited. Breakfast is bread and water, lunch and dinner are usually rice and beans, spaghetti or canned corned beef. In fact, everything is canned.

Family and friends are missed

Stucker, who served in the U.S. Marines from 1996-99, said his military training laid the foundation for how he endures the hardships of living in the bush, such as the heat and poor sleeping conditions.

“Mainly, it helps with the separation from family and friends,” he said of his training.

His mother, Mary Stucker, said her son has always had an adventurous spirit, along with a love of animals. But mothers are required to worry about their children, even Marines.

“At one point, we thought he had malaria and we were very frightened,” she said. “But that wasn’t the worst of it. He also had an infection in his arm from his wrist to his elbow. People from several different churches were praying for him. God answered our prayers.”

RBHS science teacher Dave Monti inspired Stucker to go for his dream while he was a sophomore. The two recently reconnected for the first time since Stucker’s high school graduation.

“I didn’t hear from him until last year when he was in Africa,” Monti said. “I always encouraged him to follow your passion, and if you’re lucky, you can make it your career. It was very exciting to hear the things he was doing.”

First-Ever Landscape-Wide Study of Elephants and Great Apes

(sorry I'm a bit late on posting this, but better late than never :) - MA)
from SCIENCE DAILY
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced the results of the first-ever evaluation of a large, "landscape-wide" conservation approach to protect globally important populations of elephants and great apes.

The study looked at wildlife populations in northern Republic of Congo over a mosaic of land-use types, including a national park, a community-managed reserve, and various logging concessions. It found that core protected areas -- coupled with strong anti-poaching efforts -- are critical for maintaining populations of forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, and chimpanzees.

The region, known as the Ndoki-Likouala Conservation Landscape, is considered one of the most important sites in Central Africa for all three species. The Wildlife Conservation Society has been working in the landscape since 1991 and helped establish Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in 1993.

The study appears in the April 23rd edition of the journal PLoS ONE. Authors include Wildlife Conservation Society researchers Emma Stokes, Samantha Strindberg, Parfait Bakabana, Paul Elkan, Fortuné Iyenguet, Bola Madzoke, Guy Aíme Malanda, Franck Ouakabadio and Hugo Rainey; Brice Mowawa of the Ministre de l'Economie Forestière, Republic of Congo; and Calixte Makoumbou, formerly with WCS Congo Program.

The authors found that protected areas remain a key component of the landscape for all three species. Chimpanzees and elephants are particularly sensitive to human disturbance outside the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, and the park plays a major role in their distribution. In fact Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park may be one of the most important sites for chimpanzees in the Congo Basin with some of the highest densities recorded in Central Africa.

The study also found that logging concessions that have wildlife management in place, including protection of key habitats and anti-poaching patrols, can support important populations of elephants and gorillas. However, the authors warn that logging concessions are only of conservation value if there are strict anti-poaching measures in place, and if they are close to protected areas free of human disturbance. As evidence, the study showed the results of surveys in a logging concession without any anti-poaching measures or wildlife management where abundance of all three species was very low.

"Protected areas free of human disturbance, logging, or roads remain key to the protection of great apes and elephants," said WCS researcher Emma Stokes, the study's lead author. "Landscape conservation should focus on protected areas surrounded by other land-use types that also have wildlife management in place."

The forests of the Congo Basin are one of the last remaining tropical wildernesses and a top priority for biodiversity conservation.

Commercial logging is prevalent throughout much of the Congo Basin, with over 30 percent of native forest allocated to logging concessions compared to only 12 percent under protection. More than 50 percent of the current range of western gorillas and chimpanzees is estimated to lie in active logging concessions.

"This study shows that landscape-wide conservation can work in Central Africa -- provided there are the resources and political will to save wildlife over large areas," said James Deutsch, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa programs. "Conservation on this scale is difficult and expensive, but absolutely necessary if we hope to save viable populations of elephants and great apes. At the same time, the government's capacity to follow up and take legal action against poachers should be strengthened and is a key to maintaining the protection of the forests and their wildlife."

The authors estimated elephant and great ape density using distance sampling surveys of elephant dung piles and great ape nests.

The surveys presented in this paper were made possible through generous funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Ape Conservation Fund.

Currently, WCS advocates the speedy passage of HR 4416, the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act, which would continue government support for the Great Ape Conservation Fund, and applauds Rep. George Miller (D-CA) for leading the effort. In January, Dr. Deutsch testified before a Congressional panel on behalf of WCS in support of the legislation.

--
Reference
Stokes EJ, Strindberg S, Bakabana PC, Elkan PW, Iyenguet FC, et al. (2010) Monitoring Great Ape and Elephant Abundance at Large Spatial Scales: Measuring Effectiveness of a Conservation Landscape. PLoS ONE 5(4): e10294. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010294

Abstract
Protected areas are fundamental to biodiversity conservation, but there is growing recognition of the need to extend beyond protected areas to meet the ecological requirements of species at larger scales. Landscape-scale conservation requires an evaluation of management impact on biodiversity under different land-use strategies; this is challenging and there exist few empirical studies. In a conservation landscape in northern Republic of Congo we demonstrate the application of a large-scale monitoring program designed to evaluate the impact of conservation interventions on three globally threatened species: western gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants, under three land-use types: integral protection, commercial logging, and community-based natural resource management. We applied distance-sampling methods to examine species abundance across different land-use types under varying degrees of management and human disturbance. We found no clear trends in abundance between land-use types. However, units with interventions designed to reduce poaching and protect habitats - irrespective of land-use type - harboured all three species at consistently higher abundance than a neighbouring logging concession undergoing no wildlife management. We applied Generalized-Additive Models to evaluate a priori predictions of species response to different landscape processes. Our results indicate that, given adequate protection from poaching, elephants and gorillas can profit from herbaceous vegetation in recently logged forests and maintain access to ecologically important resources located outside of protected areas. However, proximity to the single integrally protected area in the landscape maintained an overriding positive influence on elephant abundance, and logging roads – even subject to anti-poaching controls - were exploited by elephant poachers and had a major negative influence on elephant distribution. Chimpanzees show a clear preference for unlogged or more mature forests and human disturbance had a negative influence on chimpanzee abundance, in spite of anti-poaching interventions. We caution against the pitfalls of missing and confounded co-variables in model-based estimation approaches and highlight the importance of spatial scale in the response of different species to landscape processes. We stress the importance of a stratified design-based approach to monitoring species status in response to conservation interventions and advocate a holistic framework for landscape-scale monitoring that includes smaller-scale targeted research and punctual assessment of threats.

Linking camera trap data and non-invasive sampling: Jaguars 'Obsessed' by CK Cologne

One of the weakness of using genetics alone to monitor wild animal populations is that in general its pretty difficult to determine the age of the depositor. Poop size can be used in some species but it leaves much to be desired. Levels of certain hormones can also be measured to determine pre- or post- pubescence, but the method has not been well developed yet. With camera trapping you can actually see the animals you are studying, including their broad age-class, as well as their behaviours and associations - although identification can be a problem when many apes are observed. The method described below combines the two methods by attracting Jaguars with Cologne which makes them rub their face up against the camera, where harmless hair snag traps are laid. Its the next best thing to having the animal poop in front of the camera! I am not sure how intrusive and ethical this would be do to apes and if the hair snags would work since they don't exhibit the rubbing behaviour, but they certainly can be curious around the cameras (see examples here and below from the Goualougo Triangle) although the general goal with apes is to have the cameras go unnoticed. -MA

From NYTimes.com via the RARE facebook page
Jaguars ‘Obsessed’ by Calvin Klein Cologne
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

I’ve written a lot about conservation biologists using automatically activated cameras, or camera traps, to study elusive wildlife. But this is the first time I’ve heard of a men’s cologne, in this case Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men, proving useful in such work.

Starting in 2003, biologists for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which among many activities runs the Bronx Zoo, began testing various perfumes and colognes on captive cats as possible attractants for camera trapping work. Patrick Thomas, the curator who initiated that effort, told me that the products containing musk were particularly good at eliciting the “cheek-rubbing behavior” that is helpful in studies seeking hair samples from passing cats as a way to check their DNA. (He emphasized that the fashion house has no involvement in the work.)

Last year, the cologne was used as the attractant in camera studies aimed at determining the population density of jaguars in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. The photograph and the video sequence here show the results. [A reader makes an important point below about the source of some musk used in perfumes and the like -- civets and other wildlife. A student posted some useful background on this awhile back.]

One take-home lesson might be to leave the scents at home if you plan on a wildlife excursion any time soon — although Thomas noted that Obsession didn’t work well when he tried it in a research project focused on predatory cats in South Africa.

Camera Trap Ape Videos from the Goualougo Triangle:

Club P.A.N. blog cross-posting - snails saving apes

This is a topic very dear to my heart since the MPI-EVA Conservation Group (of which I am a member) in collaboration with the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation (WCF), Office Ivorien des Parcs and Reserves (OIPR) and the Ministère de l’éducation National - Inspection de l’enseignement Primaire de Soubré1 (CPE) started a similar project but with school children instead of hunters this year. Visit our Club P.A.N. blog for more information on our project! - MA

From Discovery News
Snails Are Saving Endangered Gorillas
by Jennifer Viegas

Humble snails are helping to prevent Cross River gorilla poaching in Nigeria, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The WCS has just launched a new program that promotes snail farming, which helps local people generate income, provides an alternative source of animal protein, and hopefully will eliminate illegal hunting of what is Africa’s rarest and most endangered great ape.

Eight former gorilla hunters were selected from four villages to participate in the new initiative. With help from the WCS, they've constructed snail pens, each of which was stocked with 230 African giant snails. Because of the snail’s high protein content, coupled with low maintenance costs, quick results, and easy replication, snail farming is expected to catch on quickly.

Just as French chefs prize snails, locals there view these gastropods as a delicacy and the high demand for them in villages and larger communities makes the prospect of farming viable.

“People living near Cross River gorillas have trouble finding alternative sources of income and food and that’s why they poach,” said James Deutsch, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa program. “We are working with them to test many livelihood alternatives, but perhaps the most promising, not to mention novel, is snail farming.”

Once thought to be extinct, Cross River gorillas were rediscovered in the 1980s. The most endangered of the African apes, Cross River gorillas now number less than 300. Even if just a handful are taken as bushmeat, the killings can really put a dent in the gorilla's already weakened population.

Get this: The operation cost per year for each snail farmer, after necessary replacement of nets and cement and labor costs, is estimated at only $87. The profit, after expenses, with the sale of an average of 1500 snails per bi-annual harvest, is estimated at $413 per year. The meat of one gorilla, on the other hand, fetches about $70.

“Cross-River gorillas depend on law enforcement and conservation efforts to survive,” says Andrew Dunn, WCS Nigeria Country Director. “The work of WCS and our dedicated field-staff to develop alternate livelihoods for local poachers is just one step on the road to recovery for these incredible animals.”

CNN reports on the Cross River gorilla

photo from the North Carolina zoo website

From CCN.com
In search of world's rarest and most endangered gorilla
By Christian Purefoy

We shouldered our packs -- leaving behind us a small town of wooden shacks, and making our way up a steep climb into the Mbe mountains and Nigeria's last rainforest. In this area there's no mobile phone network and only a few hours of electricity a month for the local community. One of our guides waved towards the forest ahead of us: "We used to hear the gorillas roar from here in the town," reminisced Joseph Njama. "But not anymore."

We're searching for the world's rarest and most endangered gorilla -- the Cross River gorilla. In Nigeria and Cameroon there are thought to be only 300 left, and in these Mbe mountains maybe only 30 remain. The gorillas are under threat from local poachers, who sell the meat in local bush-markets. So far, it seems the rugged terrain of the Mbe mountains has saved the gorillas from extinction -- difficult access and thick forests make it a perfect hiding place. But with Nigeria's burgeoning population of 150 million people -- the small gorilla population is under increasing pressure.

Our guides -- or "eco-guards" -- are ex-poachers now turned guardians for the gorillas, patrolling the rainforest daily for hunters. But even they see the gorillas maybe only two or three times a year.

As we trekked through encroaching farmlands, scattered banana plantations and then cutting our way through the rainforest, eco-guard Joseph Njama would point out the few signs that show the gorillas still inhabit the region. "These are the teeth of the gorilla," Joseph pointed to teeth-markings in an old fruit. "Look at them biting it -- forcing it to break." The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the local Cross River government are throwing their support behind a community-based conservation program.

The nine local communities living in the shadow of the Mbe mountains have come together to try to protect the gorillas -- holding regular meetings on how to stop poachers and farmland encroachment. But disagreement over exactly how is proving divisive. And the conservation support they've been promised by government, says local king Oduo Abang-Aban, has not been forthcoming. "We're trying to cry to government -- we who are trying to keep this mountain safe ... otherwise some people will encroach." And so the consequences of neglect and delay remain.

Emmanuel Oshibeka untied his small nylon bag, and one by one, pulled out four gorilla skulls. He was jailed for only six months after he killed three gorillas in 2006. A tenth of the local gorilla population in one day. "They were in a group and I was with a dog. The dog ran and met them and they began to shout. Then I also entered and I saw them on top of a tree," Emmanuel explained the moment when he killed the three gorillas. "I began to shoot three of them in the trees, and as they fell to the ground I went and slaughtered them," Emmanuel pulled his hand across his throat in a graphic description of how he killed them. WCS now help him tend bees as an alternative to hunting. But so far, only one out of five hives have successfully colonized. "When I do not succeed in beekeeping and there's no money from there -- I can still go back to the forest," Emmanuel warned.

But as we continued our search through the rainforest we find further signs of life. Bent branches and leaves all folded into a small bed on the ground -- a gorilla nest only two to three weeks old. "The only way we can get information on the population is by finding nests such as this," explained Inaoyom Imong, a local biologist with WCS, "To give an idea of the population size and ranging behavior. And also looking at the food remains you can see what plants the gorillas are eating." As he pulled out a tape measure to record the size of the nest, Inaoyom described an encounter with the gorillas.

"It's exciting -- they're huge animals, very charismatic -- they're a beauty to withhold. The way they charge at you, roar, open their fangs -- it's exciting, fearful but very exciting."

And finding nests like this, says Nigerian WCS Director Andrew Dunn, is a hopeful sign that their efforts are not in vain. "There are people who wrote off the Cross River gorilla entirely, but we've shown that although there are only three or four small groups left -- there are corridors left between these remaining groups. So the future is not entirely bleak."

As we trekked out of the mountains and the end of our three day trip, the sound of singing and church service rang through the communities banana plantations -- a warning of human encroachment towards the forest. We didn't see any gorillas but the more these gorillas fear humans and stay hidden the better their chances of survival.

The Secret Langugage of Elephants

Image from the Dzanga forest elephant blog

Please go to the 60 minutes website to watch a fantastic report on Andrea Turkalo's work at the Dzanga Bai (C.A.R./Cameroon) with forest elephants.

Elusive Cross River gorilla caught on film

For a better quality video visit the BBC website (video courtesy of NDR Naturfilm)

Rare Cross River gorilla filmed
By Matt Walker
from BBC news

Rare footage has been taken of an elusive and critically endangered type of gorilla.
Film of the formerly camera-shy Cross River gorilla was captured in the forests of Cameroon by a team from Hamburg-based NDR Naturfilm. The team says it is the first professionally shot film of the gorilla taken, and the animal has only once before been caught on camera. Fewer than 300 Cross River gorillas, a western gorilla subspecies, remain. According to the World Conservation Society (WCS), which supported the expedition to film the ape, the only previous footage available of Cross River gorillas was taken by a field researcher using a shaky, hand-held camera and from a long distance in 2005.

"These gorillas are extremely wary of humans and are very difficult to photograph or film," says Dr. Roger Fotso, Director of WCS-Cameroon. "Eventually, we identified and staked out some of the gorillas' favourite fig trees, which is where we finally achieved our goal." Cross River gorillas live in roughly 11 subgroups, dispersed among highland areas along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. They are one of a number of subspecies of gorilla. Cross River gorillas belong to the same species as western lowland gorillas, but differ in the dimensions of their skulls and teeth.

DNApes EXCLUSIVE!: Two Videos from the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project

The Goualougo Triangle Ape Project (GTAP) is run by Drs. Crickette Sanz and David Morgan and was initiated in an area known as the Goualougo Triangle, which is located in the Sangha region of the northern Republic of Congo. Since the project’s inception in 1999, GTAP has maintained a continuous scientific and conservation presence in the 385 km² study area.

Image from nationalgeographic.com

The main goals of GTAP are to enhance our knowledge of the central subspecies of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and improve the conservation status of this ape throughout central Africa. Although the chimpanzee is a flagship conservation species that has been studied for several decades in eastern and western Africa, very little is known about the central subspecies residing in the Congo Basin.

As a component of their ongoing research and monitoring program, they are also examining the effects of mechanized logging and associated activities on chimpanzees and gorillas. The study area has been subdivided into zones with regard to the Ndoki-Nouabalé boundary, past and future scheduled timber extraction in adjacent regions, and geographical features such as waterways. This unique scenario has the potential to provide new insights to anthropogenic influences on chimpanzee behavior and ecology, and also indicates the rapidly changing context of primatological research and its intersection with conservation efforts in habitat countries.

The Goualougo triangle was also featured in National Geographic magazine in 2003 when Jane Goodall visited the area after a 10 year absence from the forest. The entire story can be read online at NationalGeographic.com

Dave and Crickette have kindly allowed me to post the following two videos, created by up and coming film maker Adrian Melnyk, on the DNApes blog. Enjoy!

The first video "Remote Video Monitoring of Fruiting Trees in the Ndoki Forest" demonstrates the utility of camera traps for documenting the diversity of wildlife in areas without the need for more time consuming or disruptive practices.

CLICK HERE to download a high quality version of this video.

The second video "Chimpanzee Tool Technology in the Ndoki Forest" highlights the main tool using behaviours of the chimpanzees in the Goualougo study area, some never documented at other long-term chimpanzee study sites.

CLICK HERE to download a high quality version of this video

For more information on GTAP visit www.congo-apes.org

From the Wildlife Conservation Society: New Census Shows Massive Gorilla Population in Northern Republic of Congo

Photo by Josephine Head

From www.wcs.org
This is great news for gorillas—new figures double all previous estimates

NEW YORK (AUGUST 5, 2008) – The world’s population of critically endangered western lowland gorillas received a huge boost today when the Wildlife Conservation Society released a census showing massive numbers of these secretive great apes alive and well in the Republic of Congo.
The new census tallied more than 125,000 western gorillas in two adjacent areas in the northern part of the country, covering an area of 18,000 square miles (47,000 square kilometers). Previous estimates from the 1980s placed the entire population of western lowland gorillas, which occur in seven Central African nations, at fewer than 100,000. Since then, however, scientists had believed that this number had dwindled by at least half, due to hunting and disease.
The census data were released at a press conference at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland. The WCS scientists who worked on the census include Fiona Maisels, Richard Malonga, Hugo Rainey, Emma Stokes, and Samantha Strindberg.
The new census was the result of intensive fieldwork carried out by the Bronx Zoo-based WCS and the Government of Republic of Congo. The researchers combed rainforests and isolated swamps to count gorilla “nests” to accurately estimate the population. Gorillas construct nests each night from leaves and branches for sleeping. Population densities ranged as high as eight individuals per square kilometer in one particularly rich forest patch, which ranks as among the highest gorilla density ever recorded.
WCS says a combination of factors account for such high numbers of gorillas, including successful long-term management of the Republic of Congo’s protected areas; remoteness and inaccessibility of some of the key locations where the gorillas were found; and a habitat where there is plenty to eat, particularly in some of the swamp forests and the “Marantaceae” forests, which are rich in herbs.
WCS has worked with the Government of Republic of Congo in the northern area of the country for nearly 20 years, helping to establish the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park and manage the Lac Télé Community Reserve, while working with logging companies outside of protected areas to reduce illegal hunting.
“These figures show that northern Republic of Congo contains the mother lode of gorillas,” said Dr. Steven E, Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “It also shows that conservation in the Republic of Congo is working. This discovery should be a rallying cry for the world that we can protect other vulnerable and endangered species, whether they be gorillas in Africa, tigers in India, or lemurs in Madagascar.”
The tally of northern Congo’s gorillas incorporates 73,000 found in the Ntokou-Pikounda region and 52,000 from the Ndoki-Likouala landscape, where a previously unknown population of nearly 6,000 gorillas was discovered in an isolated raffia swamp. WCS cautioned that many of the gorillas live outside of existing protected areas, though the Government of Congo has committed to creating a new national park in the Ntokou-Pikounda region.
“We knew from our own observations that there were a lot of gorillas out there, but we had no idea there were so many,” said Dr. Emma Stokes, who led the survey efforts in Ndoki-Likouala. “We hope that the results of this survey will allow us to work with the Congolese government to establish and protect the new Ntokou-Pikounda protected area.”
Mr. Claude Etienne Massimba of the Government of Republic of Congo’s Department of Wildlife and Protected Areas said, “We hope that these results will speed up the classification of the Ntokou-Pikounda zone into a protected area.”
Across Central Africa, gorillas face the looming threats of hunting for bushmeat and the spread of the Ebola virus, which is lethal to gorillas as well as humans. WCS is working with partners to combat Ebola, eliminate commercial hunting, and secure this last stronghold for Africa’s apes.
Many gorilla conservation projects are funded through two primary programs of the federal government—the Congo Basin Forest Partnership at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Great Apes Conservation Fund at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Both of these programs are at risk of being cut in the Fiscal Year 2009 federal budget. Although the budget process in Washington has stalled, WCS is calling for Congress to restore and grow these programs by completing work on the Fiscal Year 2009 budget before the end of September.
Western lowland gorillas are one of four recognized gorilla subspecies, which also include mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, and Cross River gorillas. All are classified as “critically endangered” by the IUCN, except eastern lowland gorillas, which are endangered. The Wildlife Conservation Society is the only conservation group working to safeguard all four subspecies. WCS’s conservation work in Central Africa was funded in part from admission fees to the Bronx Zoo’s Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit, which has raised more than $8.5 million for conservation in Central Africa since the opening in 1999.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild places worldwide. We do so through science, global conservation, education and the management of the world's largest system of urban wildlife parks, led by the flagship Bronx Zoo. Together these activities change attitudes towards nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in harmony. WCS is committed to this mission because it is essential to the integrity of life on Earth. Visit: www.wcs.org

Very Important Scientists of the Month: Thomas Breuer & Mireille Hockemba

Doin' it gorilla-style
from New Scientist.com
Michael Marshall, online editorial assistant

Well, we had to have a Valentine's Day post, so here it is. For the first time, scientists have photographed wild gorillas mating face-to-face (see Photo).

Thomas Breuer & Mireille Ndoundou Hockemba, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, observed the behaviour during a long-term study of western gorillas in the Republic of Congo. They reported their findings in the April 2007 issue of Gorilla Gazette, but the photos have only now been released.

Face-to-face mating is unusual among primates. It's technically called ventro-ventral copulation, and is only frequently observed in bonobos and, of course, humans. Most primates prefer the dorso-ventral position, which our more plainly spoken readers may know as doggie-style.

The gorilla shown in the picture, who researchers call Leah, is something of a celebrity. In 2005 she was the first wild gorilla observed using a tool - she dipped a long stick into a pool of water to test its depth before wading in.

The story got me wondering about the evolutionary reasons for these different mating behaviours. On the face of it, you could argue that one sexual position is pretty much as good as another (unless you're endangering yourself by performing weird contortions, which seems to be a purely human preoccupation). After all, the point is to deliver the sperm to the egg in as efficient a way as possible, and so long as the male is fully inserted, what difference can it make?

However, some species copulate for reasons other than breeding. Famously, bonobos engage in large quantities of sex, partly as a way of forming and maintaining social bonds. They have also been observed having sex face-to-face, not to mention a whole catalogue of other activities including (and before we get complaints, this is the official term) penis fencing.

That suggests to me that face-to-face mating could have evolved to help strengthen emotional and social bonds, and promote teamwork. Focusing on your partners face would presumably emboss it in your memory, helping you to form a relationship with them. It has also been shown that eye contact makes you more attractive. Why this is so is unclear, but might it be a marker of openness and interest?

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the third gorilla (on the right of the picture) is Leah's young daughter Nancy. So probably not a gorilla peeping Tom - though given the range of sexual behaviours observed in primates, I won't be surprised if some of them engage in voyeurism as well.

more reports on Thomas & Mireille's work can be found at the links below:

*nature.news: Gorillas in the missionary position
*sciencedaily.com: Unique Mating Photos Of Wild Gorillas Face To Face
*reuters.com: Gorillas caught in face-to-face love action
*nationalgeographic.com: Gorillas Photographed Mating Face-to-Face -- A First
*NY Times blog: The Ultimate Valentine Card: Full-Frontal Gorilla Love