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Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) Diet Composition and Food Availability in a Human-Modified Landscape at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau

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Abstract

Nonhuman primate populations are facing widespread conversion of their habitat to human-modified landscapes dominated by agriculture, in which cultivated species may constitute alternative food resources, particularly during periods of wild food scarcity. We assessed intraseasonal variation in dietary composition and diversity of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau, a forest–savannah mosaic disturbed by humans, in relation to food availability. We also investigated spatial variation in dietary composition. We collected phenological data from March 2011 to February 2012 by sampling focal plant taxa and conducted macroscopic analyses of fecal samples and feeding remains during the dry season (February–May and October–December) of 2011. More fruits were available in the dry than in the wet season, and ripe fruit availability peaked in the late dry season. Chimpanzees showed a fruit-based diet composed of 31 identified plant species. Fecal samples (N = 210) were dominated by wild species (82 % volume), while cultivated species were rare (0.9 % volume; 17 % volume of unidentified species). The consumption of fruit species increased with ripe fruit availability, but a few wild fruit species were selected disproportionately to their overall availability. There was no association between dietary composition and distances among fecal samples, suggesting that chimpanzees have access to and largely use the same set of plant species over the entire study area. Moreover, the proximity to agricultural areas did not influence dietary composition. Our findings highlight that chimpanzees in this human-modified landscape still rely mostly on the consumption of wild fruit species and rarely include cultivated foods in their diet. Overall, our study underscores the importance of knowledge of feeding ecology to understand better the effects of anthropogenic habitat modification on primate diet and distribution as well as the limits to their persistence in the expanding human-dominated agricultural landscapes across their range.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas (Guinea-Bissau) for permits and logistical support. We are grateful to LCNP staff (Honório Pereira, Benjamim Indec, Justo Nadum, Idrissa Camará, Abu Dabô, Agostinho N’fanda, Bacari Sanhá, Bafode Mané, Musa Mané, and Umaru Candê) and the villagers (especially Sadjo Camará) for their great assistance during data collection. Thanks to project Dari, especially Catarina Casanova and Celine Madeira. We also thank Christoph Meyer, Ainara Cortés-Avizanda, the reviewers, and the editors for helpful comments. Land cover data were generously provided by Luís Catarino, Joana Melo, and André Pinto from Instituto de Investigação Científica e Tropical (Portugal). This work was funded by a doctoral scholarship (SFRH/BD/60702/2009) to J. S. Carvalho from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal). J. S. Carvalho further thanks Conservation International for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), University of Lisbon, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Joana S. Carvalho & Luís Vicente

  2. Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM), University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9LZ, Scotland, UK

    Tiago A. Marques

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  1. Joana S. Carvalho
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  2. Luís Vicente
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Correspondence to Joana S. Carvalho.

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Carvalho, J.S., Vicente, L. & Marques, T.A. Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) Diet Composition and Food Availability in a Human-Modified Landscape at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau. Int J Primatol 36, 802–822 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-015-9856-y

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