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

这一高风险项目的目的是评估在塞内加尔东南部人类研究人员的存在下，使一个新的黑猩猩种群（Pan troglodytes verus）定居的可行性。这群稀树大草原上的黑猩猩可能居住在当今黑猩猩最炎热、最干燥、最开阔的栖息地，这种栖息地与早期人类被认为是在其中进化的。该项目的长期目标是将热带草原黑猩猩的行为和生态与森林黑猩猩进行比较。在塞内加尔，人类和黑猩猩在一些地区共存，这里的黑猩猩已经习惯了人类的存在。除了监测黑猩猩适应人类研究人员的过程外，另一个直接的目标是了解黑猩猩种群在人类居住地区的成功情况。这些发现可以应用于其他地方的黑猩猩保护。随着非洲人口的不断增长，了解人类和黑猩猩如何和平共处将是对保护生物学的重大贡献。了解热带草原黑猩猩的生态可以帮助我们了解人类在类似环境下的行为生态学，这个项目启动了研究这些濒危灵长类动物所必需的困难的适应过程。

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.