Burkina Faso Nationwide

West Africa > Burkina Faso

Summary

• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Burkina Faso is unlikely.
• The country has a total size of 274,200 km².

Site characteristics

The Republic of Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, is a landlocked country in West Africa and covers a total area of 274.200km² (12.61 N, -1.40 W) and borders on Mali in the west and north, on Niger in the northeast, on Benin in the southeast, and on Togo, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire in the south. The country consists of extensive plains, low hills, high savannas, and a desert area in the north. Rainfall is heaviest in the southwest, which is covered largely with savanna; the rest of the country is semidesert. Burkina Faso has several unnavigable rivers. In the southwest is the Komoé (Comoé) River, which flows through Côte d'Ivoire to the Gulf of Guinea. Burkina Faso has approximately 15% forest cover and an additional 34% of other wooded land. The country has very little closed forest, which is mainly gallery forests along watercourses (Kormos et al. 2003).

Table 1: Basic site information for Burkina Faso

Area	274,200 km²
Coordinates	12.61 N, -1.40 W
Designation
Habitat types	Subtropical/Tropical dry forest, dry savanna

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are considered extirpated from Burkina Faso (Lee et al. 1988; Teleki, 1989). Kortlandt and van Zon stated in 1968 unconfirmed presence of chimpanzees in the south-western part of the country near the borders of Mali and Côte d’Ivoire (Kortlandt and van Zon 1969). Lee et al. 1988 also states that unconfirmed sightings suggest that during the rainy season chimpanzees may be crossing into Burkina from Côte d’Ivoire. Surveys in 2012 in in five forest reserves along the southern border of Burkina Faso (Arly National Park, Pama Partial Reserve, Comoé-Léraba Partial Reserve, Koulbi Protected Forest, Nazinga Game Ranch and Reserve) could not confirm any presence of chimpanzees (Ginn et al. 2013). Hence, the perennial or seasonal presence of Pan troglodytes verus in Burkina Faso is unlikely (Ginn et al. 2013).

Table 2: Great ape population estimates in Burkina Faso

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	1969-1988			Present		Not reported	Lee et al. 1988	Multiple sightings of probably seasonal populations of chimpanzees were reported in multiple sources for 1969-1988.
Pan troglodytes verus	2012	0	0	0	Arly National Park, Pama Partial Reserve, Comoé-Léraba Partial Reserve, Koulbi Protected Forest, Nazinga Game Ranch and Reserve	Index survey and interview method	Ginn et al. 2013	Total survey effort: 250 km in reconnaissance surveys in five forest reserves

Threats

Not reported.

Conservation activities

As chimpanzees are likely extirpated from Burkina Faso conservation activities to chimpanzees were not reported.

Table 4: Conservation activities in Burkina Faso

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

* if ongoing or unknown add year of reference in brackets

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Impediments

Table 5: Impediments reported for Burkina Faso

Impediment	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6: Great ape behaviors reported for Burkina Faso

Behavior	Source
Not reported

Available datasets for this site

A.P.E.S Portal

References

Ginn LP, Robinson J and Redmond I. 2013. Strong evidence that the West African chimpanzee is extirpated from Burkina Faso. Oryx. 47(3): 323–327
Kormos, R., Boesch, C., Bakarr, M.I. and Butynski, T. (eds.). 2003. West African Chimpanzees. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
Lee, P.C., Thornback, J. and Bennett, E.L. 1988. Threatened Primates of Africa. The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Teleki, G. 1989. Population status of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and threats to survival. Pp. 312–353 in: Un- derstanding Chimpanzees (eds. P.G. Heltne and L.A. Marquardt). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mas- sachusetts, USA.

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 04/10/2019