- The pervasive effects of climate change in the Congo Basin have resulted in scientists overestimating bonobo populations, a recent study says.
- Ape surveys rely on nest counts to estimate wild populations, but climatic data from 2003-2018 suggests that long-term weather patterns affect how long it takes ape nests to decay.
- They discovered that decay time in the Congo Basin has increased by 17 days, raising concerns about potential inaccuracies in population counts not only for bonobos, but also for other great apes for whom population estimates rely on nest counts.
Population surveys of bonobos (Pan paniscus) rely not on counting individual apes, but on counting the nests the apes leave behind in the forest, seen as a reliable population indicator. However with a changing climate leading to hotter, drier weather, the researchers discovered that nests are lasting much longer than they did a few decades ago, leading to a potential overcalculation of bonobo numbers.
The study investigates the effects of climate change in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the authors say the implications of these findings go beyond the field site.
As Barbara Fruth, senior author and group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPIAB), told Mongabay, “you can apply this to all great apes” as nest counts are a common tool used by researchers all over the world.
https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...-may-have-overcounted-bonobos-study-says/amp/