ABSTRACT
The inventory of wildlife on permanent transect in the North
east Periphery Zone of the Boumba-Bek National Park (BBNP) was carried out on
July 22, 2013 to January 21, 2014 in the park and the surrounding villages of
Gribé and Gouonepoun. The study had the following objectives that is, to
compare the density and the abundance of large and medium-sized mammals within
these sites, to evaluate the performance of the survey methods used, to detect
the rare species and to provide some suggestions to guide the management model
of fauna. To estimate the densities and the abundance of each species, direct
diurnal, indirect diurnal, nocturnal surveys, and camera trapping were used.
Twenty eight large and medium-sized mammal species were
identified on 18 permanent transects. A distance of 108 kilometers was
effectively covered. The indirect diurnal surveys gave 4492 signs of presence
with Mean Encounter Rates (MER) of 41,935, with a significant difference among
the sites for the yellow back duiker, the buffalo, long tail pangolin and the
giant pangolin. Only the densities of the blue duikers and russet-red duikers
were estimated by the DISTANCE Program 6.0, in Gribé (2,915 blue
duikers/km² and 1,364 russet-red duikers/km²), in Gouonepoun (1,678
duikers/km² and 0,745 russet-red duikers/km²) and in the BBNP (0,634
duikers/km² and 0,837 russet-red duikers/km²). There is no
significant difference observed among the three sites. Only the densities of
the small monkeys for the direct diurnal survey were estimated by the DISTANCE
Program 6.0, in Gribé (6,027 groups of small monkeys/km²), in
Gouonepoun (3,848 groups of small monkeys/km²) and in the BBNP (8,500
groups of small monkeys/km²). 337 signs were recorded, MER of 3,5 per
transect, there is no significant difference observed among the sites.
A total of 1105 signs were recorded during the nocturnal
survey (MER = 10,32), for this survey, only blues duikers densities was
estimated by DISTANCE program 6.0, in Gribé (34,799 blues
duikers/km²), in Gouonepoun (91,328 blues duikers /km²) and in the
BBNP (78,423 blues duikers/km²). There is no significant difference among
the three sites. Twelve cameras trappings were fixed per site, where 578
captures were realized, with 156 captures in Gribé (Densities =
19,713#177;35,653 individual's/km²), 231 captures in Gouonepoun (Densities
= 27,017#177;34,528 individual's/km²) and 191 captures in BBNP (Densities
= 20,813#177;31,976 individual's/km²). The total effort of capture was
1080 camera-days. The Wildlife Picture Index (WPI) was estimated for all
species. There is no significant difference in densities and WPI estimated. The
dung decay's rate is estimated for five species. The habitat of fauna on
transects in Gribé and Gouonepoun was characterized. The evaluation of
the surveys methods tested, revealed that, the best method of linear transect
in the study zone was the indirect diurnal surveys. The rare species that were
captured by the cameras trapping belong to 4 families with 8 species. Three
axes were developed in order to guide management model of the wildlife
resources in the study area.
Keywords: Boumba-Bek National Park; Camera
trapping; Performance of surveys methods; Permanent transects; Wildlife Picture
Index; Wildlife survey.
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