Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

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Summary

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Leaflet

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park.
• The population sizes are unknown.
• The population trends are unknown.
• The site has a total size of 4,458. km².
• Current threats are unknown; in the past, hunting and logging were the main threats.
• Conservation activities have focused on habituation of gorillas for research and ecotourism

Site characteristics

Moukalaba-Doudou National Park is located in southwestern Gabon, 700 km south of Libreville. The Moukalaba area was designated as a Forest Reserve in 1962 and as a National Park in 2002 (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008). Vegetation types present in the park include primary and secondary forest, riverine forest, montane forest, and savanna (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).

Table 1. Basic site information for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Species	'Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Area	4,458 km²
Coordinates	Lat: -2.403664 , Lon: 10.399228
Type of site	Protected area (National Park)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Savanna, Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest
Type of governance

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or vistation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Gorilla gorilla gorilla	2002		1.08	6.99		Northern part of Moukalaba-Doudou National Park	Line transects		Takenoshita, Y., & Yamagiwa 2008	Survey effort: 44.3 km

Threats

Since logging stopped in 1988, no poaching of gorillas has been recorded (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008). During the period when logging was actively carried out, gorillas were being hunted. The Gabonese government prohibited hunting in 1986 and the logging company in Moukalaba left in 1988 (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
1 Residential & commercial development		Absent
10 Geological events		Absent
12 Other threat		Absent
5 Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Absent (if you know a threat category is absent)	Gorillas hunted during the period when logging sites were active. Hunting was forbidden in 1986 and the logging company left in 1988 (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).	Until 1988
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Absent (if you know a threat category is absent)	Selective logging initiated in 1962. Logging activities ended in 1988 (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).	Until 1988
4 Transportation & service corridors	4.1 Roads & railroads	Present (unknown severity)	Roads constructed for timber transportation (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).	Ongoing (2008)
2 Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3 Energy production & mining		Unknown
6 Human intrusions & disturbance		Unknown
7 Natural system modifications		Unknown
8 Invasive & other problematic species, genes & diseases		Unknown
9 Pollution		Unknown
11 Climate change & severe weather		Unknown

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
3 Species health	3.2 Keep safety distance to habituated apes	A minimum distance of 20 m from gorillas was kept during the habituation process (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008).		Ongoing (2008)
5 Protection & restoration	5.2 Legally protect ape habitat	The site is classified as a National Park.		Ongoing (2022)
6 Species management	6.1 Habituate primates to human presence to reduce stress from tourists/researchers	Gorilla habituation (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008). In 2014, the NGO PROGRAM was appointed by the National Agency of National Parks to provide on-the-ground management of the habituation of a group of gorillas called “Musiru”, intended for tourism, in collaboration with Kyoto/IRET (PPI).		Ongoing
8 Permanent presence	8.2 Run tourist projects and ensure permanent human presence at site	A local NGO, (PROGRAM), fosters community-based ecotourism and organises gorilla trekking around Doussala.		Ongoing

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Enablers	Specific enablers	Source	Year(s)
1 Site management
2 Resources and capacity
3 Engaged community
4 Institutional support
5 Ecological context
6 Safety and stability

Research activities

Ecological studies on the sympatric population of gorillas and chimpanzees have been carried out at the site since the early 2000s. The habituation of gorillas started in 2003 during a long-term socio-ecological primate survey (Ando, Iwata & Yamagiwa 2008, Takenoshita, Ando & Yamagiwa 2008).

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

Behavior	Source
honey extraction with tools	Wilfried & Yamagiwa 2014
hunting with tools	Wilfried & Yamagiwa 2014

External links

Moukalaba-Doudou National Park

References

Ando, C., Iwata, Y., & Yamagiwa, J. (2008). Progress of habituation of western lowland gorillas and their reaction to observers in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. African Study Monographs. Supplementary Issue., 39, 55-69.

Iwata, Y., & Ando, C. (2007). Bed and bed-site reuse by western lowland gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. Primates, 48(1), 77-80.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-006-0003-4

Takenoshita, Y., Ando, C., & Yamagiwa, J. (2008). Fruit phenology of the great ape habitat in the Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. African Study Monographs. Supplementary Issue., 39, 23-39.https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/66240

Takenoshita, Y., & Yamagiwa, J. (2008). Estimating gorilla abundance by dung count in the northern part of Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. African Study Monographs. Supplementary Issue., 39, 41-54. https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/66239/1/ASM_S_39_41.pdf

Wilfried, E. E. G., & Yamagiwa, J. (2014). Use of tool sets by chimpanzees for multiple purposes in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. Primates, 55(4), 467-472. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-014-0431-5

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