Mont Sângbé National Park

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Summary

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• Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are present in Mont Sângbé National Park.
• A population of 15 individuals was estimated in 2016.
• The chimpanzee population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 950 km².
• Key threats to chimpanzees are hunting and habitat loss due to agricultural expansion.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

Mont Sângbé National Park is located in western Côte d’Ivoire, bordered by the Sassandra river to the east (BirdLife International 2022). The Bafing river, an affluent of the Sassandra, flows east across the southern part of the park. The park forms part of the eastern end of the highland chain that extends through Guinea and northern Liberia. The terrain is rugged, with many inselbergs and several peaks that reach over 700 m (BirdLife International 2022; Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022). The vegetation consists mainly of dense savanna woodland with some small patches of deciduous forest as islands in the savanna or as galleries along watercourses (BirdLife International 2022).

Table 1. Basic site information for Mont Sângbé National Park

Area	950 km²
Coordinates	8.013935, -7.290896
Designation	National Park
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical dry forest, subtropical/tropical moist forest, savanna, rocky areas (e.g., inland cliffs, mountain peaks)

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Reconnaissance surveys were conducted at the site in 2015 and 2016. Surveys in the southern sector of the park could not be completed due to the difficulty of the terrain. No traces of chimpanzees were found in the southern sector, but there may have been chimpanzees in the areas that were difficult to access (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022). North of the Bafing River appeared to be a group of about 15 individuals. Based on genetic analyses, 14 individuals were identified from over 200 faecal samples; the individuals were found to be extremely inbred (Lester et al. 2021).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Mont Sângbé 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 verus	2015-2016	15			Mont Sângbé National Park	Index survey (reconnaissance walk)	Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022	A maximum of 13-14 fresh nests were reported at any daily site.

Threats

The national park is surrounded by savanna and farmland, making it a geographic island with low or no connectivity to other chimpanzee populations (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022). Although chimpanzees are not targeted by hunters, they are killed opportunistically. Many in the local population do not have a taboo against eating chimpanzee meat (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022).

Table 3. Threats to apes in Mont Sângbé National Park

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development		Unknown
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	High		Widespread destruction of the landscape for cocoa plantations in particular, observed during a 2016 survey (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
	2.3 Livestock farming & ranching	High		Cattle pasturing; herders enter the savanna/dry forest areas of the park. Grass is burnt annually, and this wildfire can penetrate quite deep into the wet forest (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High		Chimpanzees are not targeted for hunting in the park, but have been killed there when the opportunity has presented itself (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
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	11.5 Other impacts	Present, but threat severity unknown		Climate change will likely impact the site, e.g., impact of rivers drying up or diminishing sources of permanent rivers, as well as other effects due to temperature and rainfall changes (Cohen, H. pers. comm. 2022).	Ongoing (2022)
12. Other options		Absent

IUCN Threats list

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities in Mont Sângbé 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 Mont Sângbé National Park

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

The site was surveyed as part of the Pan African Programme (PanAf).

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Mont Sângbé National Park

Behavior	Source
Not reported

References

BirdLife International (2022) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Sangbe Mountain National Park. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 27/06/2022.
Lester, J. D., Vigilant, L., Gratton, P., McCarthy, M. S., Barratt, C. D., Dieguez, P., ... & Arandjelovic, M. (2021). Recent genetic connectivity and clinal variation in chimpanzees. Communications biology, 4(1), 1-11.

Page completed by: Heather Cohen & A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 04/07/2022