Publicaties

Our study extends quantitative analyses of insect-eating by gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) to Cameroon. During a 2-mo period (May-June 2001), we recorded and analyzed feeding traces on plants and insects and in gorilla feces. We found 180 feeding traces, 17% of which involved insectivory. Seventy-eight percent of the fecal samples (n = 36) contained insects. Ants were found in 61% of the samples, termites in 39 while 56% of the samples ...

Timber exploitation is rapidly expanding throughout the Congo Basin. Forest areas assigned to timber harvesting have sharply expanded over the decades and logging concessions now largely overlap with the range of western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla Savage Wyman, 1847). However this species, which is considered as critically endangered by IUCN, could play an essential role in maintaining the structure and composition of tropical ...

Patterns of seed dispersal significantly affect plant demography, dynamics and succession. In the tropics, the majority of tree species bear fruits that are adapted to animal-mediated dispersal. Amongst seed dispersers, the contribution of primates is widely recognized by ecologists as incomparable. However, in lowland Afrotropical forests, the specific role of the largest primate species, the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla ...

Most forest habitats in Cameroon support villages whose inhabitants are heavily reliant on the forests for their everyday needs. We assessed the socio-economic status and natural resource use of 3 villages bordering Mawambi Hills, an unprotected forest in southwest Cameroon, home to both the Critically Endangered Cross River gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli and the Endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee Pan troglodytes ellioti. This forest likely ...

To shed light on primate foamy virus (FV) evolution, we determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the gorilla simian foamy virus (SFVgor). Starting from a conserved region in the integrase (IN) domain of the pol gene we cloned the viral genome to the 5' and 3' LTR into plasmid vectors and elucidated its nucleotide sequence. The sequences of both LTRs were determined by nucleotide sequencing of separate PCR products from the primer-binding ...