Mali Nationwide

West Africa > Mali > Mali Nationwide

Summary

• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Mali.
• It is estimated that around 2,000 individuals occur in Mali.
• The chimpanzee population trend is unknown.
• This country has a total surface area of 1,200,000 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are subsistence farming and poaching.
• No conservation activities to protect chimpanzees were reported for Mali.
• Northern chimpanzee range limit is located in Mali; hottest and driest habitat in which western chimpanzees are known to exist (Kortlandt 1983)

Country characteristics

Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa, located southwest of Algeria. It lies between latitudes 10° and 25°N, and longitudes 13°W and 5°E. Mali borders Algeria to the north-northeast, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast to the south, Guinea to the southwest, and Senegal and Mauritania to the west. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,200,000 km2. Mali’s capital is Bamako. The sovereign state of Mali consists of eight regions and its borders on the north reach deep into the middle of the Sahara Desert, while the country's southern part, where the majority of inhabitants live, features the Niger and Senegal rivers. The country's economy centers on agriculture and mining. Some of Mali's prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent and salt. In January 2012, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali, which is still continuing to date. The vast northern desert part of Mali has a hot desert climate with long, extremely hot summers and scarce rainfall which decreases northwards. The central area has a hot semi-arid climate with very high temperatures year-round, a long, intense dry season and a brief, irregular rainy season. The southern areas have a tropical wet and dry climate. The hot, dry season lasts from March to May. June to October is rainy, humid and mild. November to February is the cool, dry season (Wikipedia). Chimpanzees are known to occur in south-western Mali, mainly west (but also east) of the Bafing river.

Table 1: Basic country information for Mali

Area	1,200,000 km²
Coordinates	13.09 N, -10.53 W
Designation	Not applicable
Habitat types	Inland Rocky Areas, Subtropical/Tropical Dry Lowland Grassland, Subtropical/Tropical Dry Forest, Plantations, Rural gardens, Urban areas, Subtropical/Tropical heavily degraded former forest, Desert

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Table 2: Great ape population estimates in Mali

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	1,555-5,249	0.08-0.27		Chimpanzee range in Mali estimated at 19,440 km²	Informed guess	Kormos et al. 2003	Estimate based on surveys of Moore (1985) and Pavy (1993)
Pan troglodytes verus	2015	2029 (322–9228)			Chimpanzee range in Mali	Model estimate	Heinicke et al. 2019	Based on density distribution predicted for geographic range of western chimpanzees using models and transect survey data

Threats

The main threats to chimpanzees in Mali are hunting and agricultural expansion (Kormos et al. 2003). However, the construction of new roads and human settlements, as well as the increase in mining activities, with gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone being most widely exploited, constitute significant threats to chimpanzees in this country. Gold is mined in the southern region and Mali now has the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and Ghana). Natural system modifications in the form of damming rivers represent another threat to chimpanzees in this country. Large portions of chimpanzee habitat have already been flooded with water in the past (Moore 1985, Kormos et al. 2003). Mali has made efficient use of hydroelectricity, consisting of over half of Mali's electrical power (Wikipedia).

Conservation activities

No conservation interventions have been reported for Mali.

Impediments

No information on impediments has been documented.

Table 5: Impediments reported for Mali

Impediment	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

None documented.

Relevant datasets

A.P.E.S Portal

References

Heinicke et al. 2019. Advancing conservation planning for western chimpanzees using IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. – the case of a taxon-specific database. Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1379
Kormos R, Boesch C, Bakarr M I, Butynski T. (eds.). 2003. West African Chimpanzees. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. IUCN, Switzerland and UK.
Kortlandt A 1983. Marginal habitats of chimpanzees. Journal of Human Evolution: 12 231–278.
Moore J J. 1985. Chimpanzee survey in Mali, West Africa. Primate Conservation 6: 59–63.
Wikipedia 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali#Bibliography, accessed 18. November 2019.

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki Team Date: 18/11/2019