Lobéké National Park

Central Africa > Cameroon > Lobéké National Park

Summary

Gorillas in the Petite Savanne Bai, Lobeke © Dirck Byler

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Lobéké National Park.
• It has been estimated that 2,658 gorillas and chimpanzees occur in the site.
• The great ape population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 2,153 km².
• Poaching is a key threat to chimpanzees and gorillas.
• The site forms part of the Sangha Trinational transboundary conservation landscape.

Gorillas in the Petite Savanne Bai, Lobeke © Dirck Byler

Site characteristics

Lobéké National Park is situated in the southeast corner of Cameroon. The park forms part of the Sangha Trinational (TNS) transboundary conservation landscape, which also includes Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic, and Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo (N'Goran 2017; BirdLife International 2020). With at least 305 bird species recorded, Lobéké National Park is a designated Important Bird Area (BirdLife International 2020). The saline swamps found in Lobéké attract large numbers of elephants and bongos, and the park contains a significant proportion of untouched primary forest (BirdLife International 2020). The park has one of the highest concentrations of gorillas and elephants in the continent (Sangha Tri-national Trust fund).

Table 1. Basic site information for Lobéké National Park

Area	2,153 km²
Coordinates	2.298493 N, 15.689466 E
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical/tropical swamp forest, marshes

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Lobéké National Park

Species	Year	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Encounter rate (nests/km)	Area	Method	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2015	2,658			Lobéké National Park	Line transects (Distance)	N'Goran 2017
Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2009	2,685			Lobéké National Park	Unknown	N'Goran 2017
Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2006	5,598			Lobéké National Park	Unknown	N'Goran 2017
Gorilla gorilla gorilla & Pan troglodytes troglodytes	2002	6,360			Lobéké National Park	Unknown	N'Goran 2017

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Lobéké National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture		Unknown
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High	Hunting encounter rates increased from 0.11 sign/km in 2002, to 0.17 sign/km in 2009, to 0.25 sign/km in 2015 (N'Goran 2017).		Ongoing (2017)
6. Human intrusion & disturbance		Unknown
7. Natural system modifications		Unknown
8. Invasive & other problematic species, genes, diseases		Unknown
9. Pollution		Unknown
10. Geological Events		Absent
11. Climate change & severe weather		Unknown
12. Other options		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

The Sangha Tri-National Trust Fund has contributed to the implementation of several conservation activities across the TNS; the WWF has helped develop and improve management plans for the area through their Jengi programme.

Table 4. Conservation activities in Lobéké National Park

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 intrusion & 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)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Lobéké National Park

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Several studies have been conducted at Lobéké National Park. A recent study found that changes in land cover from 2001 to 2014 influenced great ape nest distribution (Yuh et al. 2019).

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Lobéké National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

The Sangha Tri-National Trust Fund

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

N'Goran, K.P. (2017). Summary Report on WWF BIOMONITORING activities from 2014 to 2016 Status of Forest Elephant and Great Apes in Central Africa Priority Sites.
BirdLife International. (2020). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Lobéké National Park. Retrieved from http://www.birdlife.org on 23/11/2020.
Yuh, Y. G., Dongmo, Z. N., N’Goran, P. K., Ekodeck, H., Mengamenya, A., Kuehl, H., Sop, T., Tracz, W., Agunbiade, M., & Elvis, T. (2019). Effects of Land cover change on Great Apes distribution at the Lobéké National Park and its surrounding Forest Management Units, South-East Cameroon. A 13 year time series analysis. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36225-2

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 06/12/2020