Batéké Plateau National Park

Central Africa > Gabon > Batéké Plateau National Park

Summary

• Central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) & western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are present in Batéké Plateau National Park.
• The population sizes are unknown.
• The great ape population trend is unknown.
• The site has a total size of 2,054.25 km².
• Key threats to great apes are logging and poaching.
• Conservation activities have focused on rehabilitation and reintroduction of gorillas.

Site characteristics

The Batéké Plateau National Park was established in 2002. The park is located in southeastern Gabon; together with the bordering Ogooué-Leketi National Park in Congo, the parks form a transboundary protected area covering more than 5,500 square kilometers (Dasgupta 2018). The park is situated in a transitional landscape between the southeastern edge of the Gabonese rainforest and the northwestern limit of the savannah-dominated Batéké Plateau (Hedwig et al. 2018). The site harbors an interesting biodiversity found nowhere else in the Congo Basin. In addition to chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas, mammal species such as the lion (Panthera leo), Grimm's duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia), the side striped jackal (Canis adustus), and the Denham's bustard (Neotis denhami) are found in the park (WCS). In the gallery forests of the park, typical forest dwellers such as elephant, buffalo, bushpigs, duikers, and several monkey species are found (WCS).

Table 1. Basic site information for Batéké Plateau National Park

Area	2,054.25 km²
Coordinates	-2.246122 S, 14.034701 E
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, savanna

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Batéké Plateau 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
Pan troglodytes troglodytes & Gorilla gorilla gorilla

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes in Batéké Plateau 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	Present, but threat severity unknown		Wildlife throughout the Bateke Plateau is highly endangered by commercial hunting (WCS n.d.). However, camera trap surveys in 2014-2016 did not detect poachers nor poaching signs (Hedwig et al. 2018).	Unknown
	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present, but threat severity unknown		Logging and firewood collection (WCS n.d.).	Unknown
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

A gorilla reintroduction programme, Projet Protection des Gorilles Gabon, is located in the park (Le Flohic et al. 2015). Two groups composed of both wild-born and captive-born orphans have been released by the Projet Protection des Gorilles (PPG) of The Aspinall Foundation into the Batéké Plateau National Park in Gabon in 2001 and 2004, with high post-release survival, successful reproduction, and female transfer between groups (Le Flohic et al. 2015). The Plateaux Bateke National Park was officially designated on the Gabonese side in 2002, and management activities began there in 2004, in collaboration with the Projet de Protection des Gorilles and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS n.d.). An anti-poaching programme is implemented in partnership with the Gabonese Government and the WCS (Pearson et al. 2007).

Table 4. Conservation activities in Batéké Plateau 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	11.2. Legally protect primate habitat	The site is designated as a national park.	Ongoing (2022)
12. Species Management	12.8. Provide supplementary food for a certain period of time only	During the rearing period, gorillas were provided fresh Aframomum sp. for feeding and nesting, and water daily. Depending on their age and ability to feed on forest vegetation, gorillas were either fed with milk products developed for human infants (Nestle, NAN), or cereal and milk based meals (Nestle, CERELAC) (Le Flohic et al. 2015).	Unknown
	12.17. Reintroduce primates into habitat where the species is absent	The specific release site, along the Mpassa river, was selected due to the absence of wild gorillas, based on ground surveys (Pearson et al. 2007).	2001 & 2004
	12.25. Fostering appropriate behaviour to facilitate rehabilitation	The rehabilitation process appears to be successful, as orphans use their environment and interact socially in a similar way to wild gorillas, but the influence of humans in their activity-budget remains high (Le Flohic et al. 2015).	Unknown
13. Livelihood; Economic & Other Incentives	Not reported

Conservation activities list (Junker et al. 2017)

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Batéké Plateau National Park

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

A 2014-2016 camera trap survey led to the discovery of a lion and mandrills in the park (Hedwig et al. 2018). Lions were previously thought to be extinct in the northern part of the Western-Congolian savannah-forest mosaic (Hedwig et al. 2018). The black-footed mongoose and long-nosed mongoose were also detected for the first time at the site (Hedwig et al. 2018). Observations from the survey resulted in a total number of 36 medium to large-sized mammal species confirmed to be currently occurring in the park (Hedwig et al. 2018).

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Batéké Plateau National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

External links

Aspinall Foundation
WCS

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

Le Flohic, G., Motsch, P., DeNys, H., Childs, S., Courage, A., & King, T. (2015). Behavioural ecology and group cohesion of juvenile western lowland gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) during rehabilitation in the Batéké Plateaux National Park, Gabon. PloS one, 10(3), e0119609.
Pearson, L., Aczel, P., Mahé, S., Courage, A., & King, T. (2008). Gorilla reintroduction in Gabon. Gorilla Gazette, 21, 41-44.
Hedwig, D., Kienast, I., Bonnet, M., Curran, B. K., Courage, A., Boesch, C., ... & King, T. (2018). A camera trap assessment of the forest mammal community within the transitional savannah‐forest mosaic of the bateke plateau national park, Gabon. African Journal of Ecology, 56(4), 777-790.
Dasgupta, S. (2018). Republic of Congo names new national park, home to gorillas, elephants. Online: https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/republic-of-congo-names-new-national-park-home-to-gorillas-elephants/

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 10/01/2022