Cantanhez National Park

West Africa > Guinea-Bissau > Cantanhez National Park

Summary

• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Cantanhez National Park.
• It has been estimated that between 376 and 2,632 individuals occur at the site.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• This site has a total size of 1057.67 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees is the loss of habitat due to land-use conversion to agriculture.
• There are efforts to establish tourism at the site.

Site characteristics

Cantanhez is one of the last remaining fragments of humid forest in West Africa and identified as one of the 200 most important ecoregions in the world (World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)) and as one of seven priority areas in West Africa for chimpanzee conservation efforts (Kormos et al. 2003). The Cantanhez National Park (CNP) is a mosaic of settlements, agricultural fields, sub-humid forest, secondary forest, mangrove, and savanna (Catarino 2004). A range of non-human primate species occur in the CFNP, including Campbell’s monkey (Cercopithecus campbelli), green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus), western black and white colobus (Colobus polykomos), bush baby (Galago senegalensis), Demidoff’s galago (Galagoides demidoff), Guinea baboon (Papio papio), and Temminck’s red colobus (Piliocolobus badius temminckii, Bersacola 2019, Hockings & Sousa 2013). The rainfall in Guinea-Bissau is bimodal with a long dry season from November to May and a rainy season from mid-May to October (Catarino 2004). An average of 1400–2500 mm of rain falls per year and temperatures are at their lowest in January (24.7°C) and their highest in July (28.0°C) (Gippoliti et al. 2003).

Table 1: Basic site information for Cantanhez National Park

Area	1057.67 km²
Coordinates	11.19 N, -15.12 W
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Moist Savanna, Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland Forest, Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove, Forest Vegetation Above High Tide, Level, Subtropical/Tropical Heavily, Degraded Former Forest, Plantations

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

There are no regular surveys for chimpanzees and the national park as a whole was never surveyed. Recent research suggests that at least 12 chimpanzee communities occur in Cantanhez (Hockings in prep.). There is ongoing research by Kimberley Hockings and colleagues to assess population numbers and identify land-scape factors that affect the density and distribution of chimpanzees.

Table 2: Great ape population estimates in Cantanhez National Park

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	2003	376 – 2,632			Cantanhez region (including areas outside the NP such as Cacine and Catio)	Presence-absence sampling	Torres et al. 2010	Presence of chimpanzee nests recorded walking line transects, method for estimating population abundance not reported
Pan troglodytes verus	2007	33-40	1.94-2.34		Unknown	Unknown	Sousa (2007)
Pan troglodytes verus	2007	106 (weaned)	6.18 (weaned)	718 nests/28.35 km	4 forests (Caiquene, Cibe Cadique, Lautchande, Madina)	Line transects (Distance)	Sousa et al. 2011b	Total survey effort: 28.35km, no robust results, density estimates range between 1.1-6.18 weaned individuals/km² and between 376 to 2,632 chimpanzees

Threats

The chimpanzee populations occur in anthropogenic landscapes and are rarely persecuted through hunting or retaliatory killings (Sousa, Barata, Sousa, Casanova, & Vicente 2011a). Local residents report regular crop foraging by chimpanzees (Bessa et al. 2015). The level of negative interactions over cashew appears to be low, as chimpanzees forage on the economically unprofitable pseudofruit and reportedly leave the nuts in manageable piles thereby making nut collection easier for local farmers (Hockings & Sousa, 2013). The foraging of other crops such as oranges in parts of Cantanhez NP are known to have resulted in retaliatory killings of chimpanzees by farmers. To date there have been no official reports of attacks by chimpanzees on local people at this site, and this likely contributes to their indifferent or positive perceptions of chimpanzees in this area. Only the greater cane rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) and the Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus) are allowed to be hunted all year round. During the hunting period (1st Nov 1 – 30th April) more species can be hunted, including the common duiker (Cephalophus dorsalis), common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), Crested porcupine (Hytrix cristata) and Beecroft’s scaly-tailed squirrel (Anomalurus beecrofti, IBAP 2018). Primates are under protection (IBAP 2018), but still illegally hunted for meat, mostly green monkeys and Campbell’s monkeys (Minhos et al. 2016, Hockings, Bersacola, Bessa, Ramon pers obs) and baboons are sometimes kept as pets (Hockings & Sousa, 2013a). Meanwhile chimpanzees are not hunted for meat due to local taboos and perceived similarity to humans. However, chimpanzees with snare injuries have been recorded on camera traps (Hockings, Bersacola, Bessa, Ramon unpublished data). An illegal pet trade in infant chimpanzees persists (Casanova & Sousa 2006, Hockings, Bersacola, Bessa, Ramon).

Table 3: Threats to great apes in Cantanhez National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development	1.1 Housing & Urban Areas	Medium	110 villages with approximately 22,505 people ( 20 people/km²)	110 villages with approximately 22,505 people are found in the CNP with a population density of approximately 20 people/km²(Hockings & Sousa 2013b).	Ongoing (2013)
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1. Annual & Perennial Non-Timber Crops	High		Expansion of cashew and slash-and-burn agriculture (Hockings & Sousa 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
3. Energy production & mining		Not reported
4. Transportation & service corridors	4.1. Roads & railroads	High		A road is being upgraded to be passable also during rainy season (Hockings pers. com.)	Ongoing (2019)
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & Collecting Terrestrial Animals	Low		Chimpanzees with snare injuries have been recorded on camera traps (Hockings, Bersacola, Bessa, Ramon unpublished data). Some killings of chimpanzees by farmers occurred when they foraged oranges (Hockings & Sousa, 2013).	Ongoing (2013)
	5.2 Gathering Terrestrial Plants	Low		Palm oil is frequently collected (Sousa et al. 2011a, Costa et al. 2017), and there is overlap in use of wild plants by chimpanzees and humans (Hockings et al. in review)	Ongoing (2017)
6. Human intrusions & disturbance		Absent
7. Natural system modifications	7.1. Fire & Fire suppres-sion	High		Slash-and-burn agriculture (Hockings & Sousa 2013)	Ongoing (2013)
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases		Unknown		There is ongoing work to investigate disease prevalence in chimpanzees (Hockings et al. in prep.)
9. Pollution		Absent
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12. Other options		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

The Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas (IBAP, Agency of Guinea-Bissau government responsible for national parks) implements terrestrial and maritime monitoring missions, so-called ‘missões de fiscalização’. The maritime mission, for example, enables detection of illegal fishing. In addition, IBAP implements law enforcement, and supports local livelihoods by building capacity for using marine resources sustainably, such as oyster farming. An EU funded projects supports farmers in adapting more efficient farming practices. Cantanhez is being developed as a destination for tourists (http://www.ecocantanhez.org/), but the number of visiting tourists is low. It has been reported that local guides were trained and places that could be visited have been identified (Sousa et al. 2014). While current levels of tourism are low, there seems to be strong support from the community to develop it further in the future (Sousa et al. 2014).

Table 4: Conservation activities in Cantanhez National Park

Category	Specific activity	Description	Year of activity
1. Residential & commercial development	Not reported
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.11. Farm more intensively and effectively in selected areas and spare more natural land	Support efficient farming practices (Hockings pers. obs.)	Unknown (2019)
3. Energy production & mining	Not reported
4. Transportation & service corridors	Not reported
5. Biological resource use	5.6. Conduct regular anti-poaching patrols	IBAP (responsible park authority) employs local communities to conduct patrols (IBAP 2018)	Unknown (2018)
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	11.2. Legally protect primate habitat	Designated as national park since 2007 (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN 2019)	Since 2007
12. Species Management	Not reported
13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives	13.1. Provide monetary benefits to local communities for sustainably managing their forest and its wildlife (e.g. REDD, employment)	Local people are employed to conduct patrols (IBAP 2018)	Ongoing (2018)
	13.4. Run tourist projects and ensure permanent human presence at site	Low levels of tourism (Sousa et al. 2014)	Since 2007 (Sousa et al. 2014)

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Impediments

No impediments have been reported.

Table 5: Impediments reported for Cantanhez National Park

Impediment	Source
Not reported

Research activities

There are ongoing research efforts in Cantanhez NP, including studying the behavior of specific chimpanzee communities and investigating chimpanzee ranging in relation to food availability and human activities through camera trap based spatiotemporal models (Hockings & Sousa 2012; Hockings & Sousa 2013; Bessa, Sousa & Hockings 2015; Bersacola et al. 2018; Vieira et al 2019; Bersacola 2019 (PhD thesis); Bessa in prep (PhD thesis)).

Documented behaviours

Nesting in palm oil trees was reported (Sousa et al. 2011a) and there is ongoing research on chimpanzee behavioral variation across communities (Bessa et al. in prep.).

Table 6: Great ape behaviors reported for Cantanhez National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

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Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team & Kimberley Hockings Date: 03/12/2019