RAPID: Time critical survey of great ape population size, health and genetics in threatened habitats

这一快速奖励将支持对生活在贡贝国家公园附近、但在贡贝国家公园外的野生黑猩猩的调查，该地区立即受到森林砍伐和农业扩张的威胁。这个黑猩猩群体的人口统计数据，以及这个群体与受保护土地上的野生黑猩猩之间的关系，还没有被很好地理解。作为调查的一部分，将以非侵入性方式收集生物样本，以便在栖息地压力的背景下了解遗传关系和扩散模式，并将其作为理解原始人进化的比较数据。该项目将促进国际研究合作，并为濒危灵长类动物保护工作做出贡献。坦桑尼亚贡贝国家公园的黑猩猩在人类学和生物学研究中发挥了核心作用，通过阐明黑猩猩和人类之间的异同，并提供对行为、生态学、生活史和疾病生态学等主题的基本见解，有助于理解人类进化。此外，在公园东北10-20公里的贡贝-布隆迪山脊沿线最近建立的村庄森林保护区网络内，有大量的黑猩猩种群。人们对这些人群目前的联系程度知之甚少。此外，最近的调查和卫星图像显示，北部人口面临着砍伐树木、耕种和其他活动的直接威胁。研究人员将与村里的森林监督员合作，对这些黑猩猩进行彻底的调查，在黑猩猩数量减少之前，获取对未来研究至关重要的粪便样本。非侵入性的遗传和生物标记物分析将为黑猩猩的扩散模式、微生物群和病原体多样性以及人类栖息地碎片化影响种群分化的速度提供新的见解。

This RAPID award will support a survey of wild chimpanzees living in an area that is immediately threatened by deforestation and agricultural expansion, near but outside of Gombe National Park. The demographics of this chimpanzee group, and the relationship of this group to wild chimpanzees on protected lands, are not well understood. As part of the survey, biosamples will be non-invasively collected, so that genetic relationships and dispersal patterns can be understood in the context of habitat pressure and as comparative data for understanding hominin evolution. The project will foster international research collaborations and contribute to endangered primate conservation efforts.The chimpanzees of Gombe National Park, Tanzania, have played a central role in anthropological and biological studies, contributing to the understanding of human evolution through elucidating the similarities and differences between chimpanzees and humans, and providing fundamental insights into topics including behavior, ecology, life history, and disease ecology. Also, a substantial chimpanzee population has persisted 10-20 km to the northeast of the park within a recently established network of village forest reserves along the Gombe-Burundi Ridge. Little is known about the extent to which these populations are currently connected. Moreover, recent surveys and satellite images show that the northern population faces immediate threats from tree cutting, farming, and other activities. The investigators will work with village forest monitors to conduct a thorough survey of these chimpanzees, procuring, before the population dwindles, fecal samples vital for future research. Non-invasive genetic and biomarker analyses will provide new insights into chimpanzee dispersal patterns, microbiome and pathogen diversity, and the speed at which anthropogenic habitat fragmentation influences population differentiation.