Sobeya

West Africa > Republic of Guinea > Sobeya

Sobeya (Guinea) © A.P.E.S. Wiki Team

Summary

• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Sobeya.
• A population size estimate for western chimpanzees has not been reported.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• This site has a total size of 96 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are agriculture and livestock farming.
• Conservation activities were not reported.
• Sobeya was a temporary research site of the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf).

Site characteristics

Sobeya is a temporary research site of the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf) close to the village Sobeya in Guinea. More specifically this site located in the southern part of the Fouta Djallon. Research was conducted for 12 months in 2012 and 2013. The area is characterized by savanna and gallery forests. Species encountered include the Guinea baboon (Papio papio).

Table 1: Basic site information for Sobeya

Area	96 km²
Coordinates	10.26 N, 11.71 W
Designation	None
Habitat types	Dry savanna, subtropical/tropical dry shrubland, subtropical/tropical dry forest, plantations

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

As part of the PanAf data collection protocol recce and line transect surveys were conducted in 2012 and 2013. However, chimpanzee density or abundance was not analyzed/not published (PanAf 2019).

Table 2: Great ape population estimates in Sobeya

Species	Year	Abundance estimate (95% confidence interval)	Density estimate (per km²)	Encounter rate (nests/km)	Area	Method	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan troglodytes verus	2012-2013			Present	Sobeya	Line transects (Distance)	PanAf 2019	Abundance estimate was not published

Threats

The area is used by farmers and herders from nearby villages. There was a breeder settlement within the study area and the village Sobeya. Cows were frequently captured on camera traps (unpublished PanAf report).

Table 3: Threats to great apes in Sobeya

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development	1.1. Housing & urban areas	Present		Village Sobeya, breeder settlement (unpublished PanAf report from 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1. Annual & Perennial Non-Timber Crops	Present		Plantations encountered on transects (unpublished PanAf report from 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
	2.3. Livestock Farming & Ranching	Present		Cows captured on camera traps(unpublished PanAf report from 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
3. Energy production & mining		Not reported
4. Transportation & service corridors		Not reported
5. Biological resource use		Not reported
6. Human intrusions & disturbance		Not reported
7. Natural system modifications	7.1. Fire & Fire suppression	Present		Presence of fire reported (unpublished PanAf report from 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases		Not reported
9. Pollution		Not reported
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12. Other options		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Conservation interventions were not reported for Sobeya.

Table 4: Conservation activities in Sobeya

Category	Specific activity	Description	Year of activity
1. Residential & commercial development	Not reported
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	Not reported
3. Energy production & mining	Not reported
4. Transportation & service corridors	Not reported
5. Biological resource use	Not reported
6. Human intrusions & disturbance	Not reported
7. Natural system modifications	Not reported
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases	Not reported
9. Pollution	Not reported
10. Education & Awareness	Not reported
11. Habitat Protection	Not reported
12. Species Management	Not reported
13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives	Not reported

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Impediments

No impediments were reported for Sobeya.

Table 5: Impediments reported for Sobeya

Impediment	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Data collected by the PanAf at Sobeya was used to for studies on chimpanzee behavior (Kühl et al. 2016, Kühl et al. 2019, Tagg et al. 2018) and diseases in apes (Murthy et al. 2019).

Documented behaviours

Table 6: Great ape behaviors reported for Sobeya

Behavior	Source
Algae fishing	Kühl et al. 2016, Kühl et al. 2019
Ant eating	Kühl et al. 2016, Kühl et al. 2019
Stone throwing	Kühl et al. 2016, Kühl et al. 2019
Termite fishing	Kühl et al. 2016, Kühl et al. 2019

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

Kühl HS et al. 2016. Chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing. Scientific Reports. 6:1–8.
Kühl HS et al. 2019. Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science. 363:1453–1455.
Murthy S. et al. 2019. Cytomegalovirus distribution and evolution in hominines. Virus Evolution 5(2):vez015
PanAf. 2019. Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee. Online: panafrican.eva.mpg.de
Tagg N et al. 2018. Nocturnal activity in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Evidence for flexible sleeping patterns and insights into human evolution. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 166:510-529

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 14/10/2019