Exploring Savanna Chimpanzee Ecology and Prospects for Long-term Research in Senegal

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This high risk project is designed to assess the feasibility of habituating a new population of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) to the presence of human researchers in southeastern Senegal. This population of savanna chimpanzees inhabits perhaps the hottest, driest, and most open habitat used by chimpanzees today - a habitat similar to the one in which early humans are thought to have evolved. A long-term goal of the project is to examine savanna chimpanzee behavior and ecology in comparison to chimpanzees at forested sites. In Senegal, humans and chimpanzees co-exist in some areas, and chimpanzees here are used to human presence. In addition to monitoring the process of habituating chimpanzees to the presence of human researchers, another immediate goal is to understand the success of the chimpanzee population in areas inhabited by humans. The findings can be applied to the conservation of chimpanzees elsewhere. As human populations continue to increase across Africa, understanding how humans and chimpanzees can peacefully co-exist will be a major contribution to conservation biology. Understanding the ecology of savanna chimpanzees can help shed light on the behavioral ecology of humans who used similar environments, and this project initiates the difficult habituation process necessary to study these endangered primates.