CLIMATE CHANGE, NEST DECAY THREATEN CONSERVATION OF BONOBOS IN THE WILD

Climate should be factored in when assessing rainforest population

AGM/    Bonobos have changed their behaviour to adapt to climatic conditions, strengthening the structure of their nests in response to unpredictable, heavy rain.

In a study of the rate of bonobo nest decay published in PLoS ONE last month, researchers suggest that overlooking the impact of climate change may result in unreliable population estimates, hampering conservation efforts. The study assessed 1511 nests and 15 years of climatic data between 2003 and 2018 at the Congo Basin LuiKotale site, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mattia Bessone, the study's lead author, says long-term climatic data showed a decreasing trend in rainfall over the past decade, linked to ongoing climate change in the Congo basin, the world’s second largest rainforest. This is worrying as drier climate has been shown to affect food availability, and consequently the viability of forest elephant populations.

“Our study shows that climate should be factored in when assessing the abundance of great apes in the wild. Failing to do so, could result in biased estimates. As a consequence, we risk providing inaccurate information to the policy-makers called to preserve these species in the wild.”

Barbara Fruth, the corresponding author says “Failure to account for the variation of decay time, both between and within sites, will lead to unreliable population estimates. This has serious implications for understanding the dynamics of great ape populations.”

 

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