Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Central Africa > Cameroon > Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Summary

• Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti) are present in Kom Wum Forest Reserve.
• It has been estimated that 10 to 83 individuals occur in the site.
• The population trend is decreasing.
• The site has a total size of 80 km².
• Key threats include hunting, logging, extraction of non-timber forest products, and agricultural expansion.
• Conservation activities are not documented.

Site characteristics

The Kom-Wum Forest Reserve (KWFR) was created in 1951; it stretches across Boyo and Menchum divisions in northwestern Cameroon. The KWFR is surrounded by the villages Mughom and Bueni Bu, Mbengkas, Baiso and Mbongkissu (Fotang et al. 2021; Fotang et al. 2023a). The landscape is a mosaic of grassland and lowland-montane tropical forest. The site is characterized by primary forest, old secondary forest and grassland. It is home to seven diurnal primate species including putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans ludio), mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona), olive baboon (Papio anubis), tantalus monkey (Chlorocebus tantalus), patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas), and Preuss’s monkey (Allochrocebus preussi) and the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Fotang et al. 2023b).

Table 1. Basic site information for Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Area	80 km²
Coordinates
Designation	Forest Reserve
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist montane forest, subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, grassland

IUCN habitat categories Site designations

Ape status

Using a combination of survey methods it was estimated that 10 (direct observation) to 83 (distance sampling) chimpanzees live in the area depending on the estimation method (Fotang et al. 2021).

Table 2. Ape population estimates in Kom Wum Forest Reserve

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 ellioti	2018- 2019			Present	Kom Wum Forest Reserve	Index survey (reconnaissance walk) and Line transects	Fotang et al. 2023
Pan troglodytes ellioti	2018	10-83			Kom Wum Forest Reserve	Line transects (Distance) and other	Fotang et al. 2021	1) direct observation, 2) camera trapping, 3)distance sampling, 4) marked nest count, and 5) standing crop nest count, survey effort: 150 km.
Pan troglodytes ellioti	2015- 2016			11.29	Kom Wum Forest Reserve	Index survey (reconnaissance walk)	Chuo et al. 2017	survey effort 42 km. Four chimpanzees were directly observed

Threats

Based on an analysis of suitable chimpanzee habitat, the reserve is degraded and the population could go extinct unless immediate action is taken; currently, chimpanzees are confined to less than 10% of the area. The study found increasing chimpanzee occurrence with increasing elevation, secondary forest density, distance to villages and primary forest density. Hunting and forest degradation are the major threats to chimpanzees in the reserve (Fotang et al. 2023b).

Table 3. Threats to apes in Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Quantified severity	Description	Year of threat
1. Residential & commercial development	1.1 Housing & urban areas	High		Habitat destruction for the creation of new settlements (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
2. Agriculture & aquaculture	2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops	High		The lowland areas (< 800 m) are often cultivated with rice and maize and suffer from logging (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
	2.3 Livestock farming & ranching	High		Extensive cattle grazing and cattle rearing (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
3. Energy production & mining		Unknown
4. Transportation & service corridors		Unknown
5. Biological resource use	5.1 Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	High		Illegal hunting with guns and trapping (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
	5.2 Gathering terrestrial plants	High		Harvesting of non-timber forest products (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	High		Timber harvesting (Fotang et al. 2023b).	Ongoing (2023)
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

Table 4. Conservation activities in Kom Wum Forest Reserve

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 Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Challenge	Source
Not reported

Research activities

Documented behaviours

Table 6. Ape behaviors reported for Kom Wum Forest Reserve

Behavior	Source
Ground nesting	Chuo et al. 2017
Ant dipping	Chuo et al. 2017
Ant digging	Chuo et al. 2017
Crab clobber stones	Chuo et al. 2017

References

Chuo, M. D., Angwafo, T. E., Chefor, F., & Fru, B. S. (2017b). Estimation of chimpanzee’s (Pan troglodytes ellioti) abundance in the Kimbi-Fungum National Park and Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, Nw, Cameroon. Journal of Biodiversity Management and Forestry, 6(3), 20-30. DOI: 10.4172/2327-4417.1000185
Fotang, C., Bröring, U., Roos, C. et al. Mapping suitable habitat for Nigeria–Cameroon chimpanzees in Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, North-Western Cameroon. Primates (2023a). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329- 023-01054-z
Fotang, C., Dutton, P., Bröring, U., Roos, C., Willie, J., Angwafo, T. E., ... & Birkhofer, K. (2023b). Tool use by Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees for driver ant predation in Kom-Wum Forest Reserve, North-West Region Cameroon. Folia Primatologica, 1(aop), 1-13.
Fotang, C., Bröring, U., Roos, C. et al. Human Activity and Forest Degradation Threaten Populations of the Nigeria–Cameroon Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti) in Western Cameroon. Int J Primatol 42, 105–129 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-020-00191-2

Page completed by: A.P.E.S. Wiki team Date: 24/02/2023