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Primate population dynamics in Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, over nearly five decades

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Abstract

Many anthropogenic-driven changes, such as hunting, have clear and immediate negative impacts on wild primate populations, but others, like climate change, may take generations to become evident. Thus, informed conservation plans will require decades of population monitoring. Here, we expand the duration of monitoring of the diurnal primates at Ngogo in Kibale National Park, Uganda, from 32.9 to 47 years. Over the 3531 censuses that covered 15,340 km, we encountered 2767 primate groups. Correlation analyses using blocks of 25 census walks indicate that encounters with groups of black and white colobus, blue monkeys, and baboons neither increased nor decreased significantly over time, while encounters with groups of redtail monkeys and chimpanzees marginally increased. Encounters with mangabeys and L'Hoesti monkeys increased significantly, while red colobus encounters dramatically decreased. Detailed studies of specific groups at Ngogo document changes in abundances that were not always well represented in the censuses because these groups expanded into areas away from the transect, such as nearby regenerating forest. For example, the chimpanzee population increased steadily over the last 2 + decades but this increase is not revealed by our census data because the chimpanzees expanded, mainly to the west of the transect. This highlights that extrapolating population trends to large areas based on censuses at single locations should be done with extreme caution, as forests change over time and space, and primates adapt to these changes in several ways.

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Acknowledgements

This article is dedicated to the late Dr. Jerry Lwanga, a colleague and friend, who contributed the bulk of these data. It is also written in memory of Dr. Simone Teelen whose research contributed significantly to our understanding of primate population dynamics at Ngogo and census methodology. We also thank our friends and families who have made fieldwork possible over the decades.

Funding

The census work was supported by the New York Zoological Society, African Wildlife Foundation, and the National Science Foundation grants (SBR-9253590, BCS-0215622, IOB-0516644). JFG was supported by the DFG grant “The ecology and evolution of primate phageomes” (GO 3443/1–1: Project number: 453352748). Colin Chapman was supported by the Wilson Center during the writing of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, Vancouver Island University, 900 Fifth Street, Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5S5, Canada

    Colin A. Chapman

  2. Wilson Center, Washington, D.C., USA

    Colin A. Chapman

  3. Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Northwest University, **’an, China

    Colin A. Chapman

  4. School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

    Colin A. Chapman

  5. Department of Environmental Management, Makerere University, PO Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda

    Samuel Angedakin

  6. Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program, PO Box 149, Nanyuki, 10400, Kenya

    Thomas M. Butynski

  7. Helmholtz Institute for One Health, Helmholtz-Centre for Infectious Research, Greifswald, Germany

    Jan F. Gogarten

  8. Department of Applied Zoology and Nature Conservation, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Jan F. Gogarten

  9. Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    John C. Mitani

  10. Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    John C. Mitani

  11. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Thomas T. Struhsaker

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  1. Colin A. Chapman
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  2. Samuel Angedakin
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  3. Thomas M. Butynski
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  4. Jan F. Gogarten
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  5. John C. Mitani
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  6. Thomas T. Struhsaker
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Correspondence to Colin A. Chapman.

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The research complies with the ethical standards of our field and animals were only observed from a distance to cause as little disturbance as possible. Permission for this research was given by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, Uganda Forest Department, Uganda Wildlife Authority, and Makerere University Biological Field Station.

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Chapman, C.A., Angedakin, S., Butynski, T.M. et al. Primate population dynamics in Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda, over nearly five decades. Primates 64, 609–620 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-023-01087-4

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