Whenever I visit the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, I usually go out to one of the three principal field sites – Mondika, Mbeli and Goualougo. Goualougo is the most difficult to access, and so while it has generated a huge amount of valuable conservation science over the past two decades, I have only ever been able to make two or three visits. Mbeli and Mondika are a bit more accessible, by contrast, and so I have been a regular visit to both locations over the past few years.
All three of these sites are important have played a key role in the helping us to gain a better understanding of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. Conservation science has always been a key tool for gathering the data and information necessary for successful management of the national park, from the time of the very first surveys that first identified the ecological importance of the Nouabalé Forest Management Unit back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. When conservationists first arrived in the area, a number of expeditions were conducted by Mike Fay, Marcellin Agnagna and others to better understand the importance of the landscape and the distribution of charismatic species that roamed the landscape. Once a number of important ecological hotspots were identified, various site-based studies were launched both to deepen our understanding of flagship and keystone species such as elephants, gorillas and bongo. This work also ensured that there was a permanent presence in some of the most vulnerable areas in and around the national park.
Three of those site-based studies, the Mbeli Bai Study, the Goualougo Great Ape Study and the Mondika Gorilla Study continue to thrive today.
Conservation science has always been a key tool for gathering the data and information necessary for successful management of the national park
The Mbeli Bai Study is the longest running of the three sites, and has provided ground-breaking insights into the social organization and population dynamics of western lowland gorillas. The bai is a natural swampy forest clearing of approximately 15 hectares, located in the southwest of the national park, and offers a unique opportunity to observe gorillas in the wild. Gorillas are extremely difficult to study in the wild, as the majority of their habitat is made up of dense forest vegetation, making it very difficult for scientists to observe their behaviour; researchers at Mbeli solved this problem by building an eight-metre high platform that provides them with a birdseye view of the gorillas that visit the clearing.
Researchers first started working at the clearing in 1994, and initially focused on documenting the different gorillas that visited the clearing; over time, they have built up a database of thousands of observations that has enabled them to publish studies on range of different topics, including gorilla demographics, ecology, and social dynamics. All of this information has provided valuable insight to conservationists working to protect the species. Mbeli bai is also visited by other large mammals, such as forest elephants, sitatunga antelope, buffaloes, black-and-white colobus monkeys, Congo clawless and spot-necked otters. For several species, every animal visiting the clearing is individually known to the researchers, providing life histories of up to two decades for certain individuals.
Permanent research work in the Goualougo Triangle was launched in the late 1990s. The Triangle lies between the Ndoki and Goualougo rivers, on the southern boudary of the national park. The extensive swamps of the two rivers act as a natural barrier against human encroachment. This meant that historically people rarely penetrated into the heart of this pristine forest block, and when researchers first encountered chimpanzees in the area, they responded with a ‘naïve’ reaction that suggested that they had never seen human before. Instead of fleeing when encountered, the chimpanzees displayed a certain curiosity towards the human observers, and would descend to the lower branches of trees to gain a better view of the new arrivals.
The chimpanzees and gorillas in the Goualougo Triangle have been the focus of a long-term study since 1999, with the site managed by David Morgan and Crickette Sanz. Work initially focused on the social structure and behavior of chimpanzees, revealing an extensive tool-using repertoire, including tool-using behaviors not previously documented elsewhere in Africa. More recently, the study has examined the long-term impact of logging on chimpanzees, and particularly the impact of logging in the neighboring forests on the social structure and dynamics of chimpanzee communities in the Triangle. In this way, the study has become a leader in developing a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts of FSC-certified logging on apes. This helps to avoid negative impacts associated with logging, and convince governments of the need to promote timber certification.
the study has become a leader in developing a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts of FSC-certified logging on apes.
Research at the Mondika field site in first began in 1995, although at that stage the work was led by Diane Doran from Stony Brook University. Dr Doran was primarily studying the behaviour and socio-ecology of the western lowland gorilla. The silverback Kingo and his group was the first family group to be successfully habituated to the presence of researchers in the early 2000s. A second group – led by Buka – was added in 2009-10, and work is currently underway to habituate a third group. The long-term goal is for the site to be developed as a world class tourism destination, while simultaneously continuing to provide valuable data on the species.
Mondika is one of only four sites in Central Africa where western gorillas have been fully habituated to the presence of humans. The study site is located in the Djeke Triangle, a 10,000ha forest block that lies just outside the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. The area has never been logged, contains no human settlements, and was declared a conservation set-aside by the CIB logging company, which means that it will not be subject to timber extraction in the future. The zone contains an extraordinarily high density of gorillas and is also home to chimpanzees, elephants and ten other primate species; this incredibly abundant biodiversity is expected to become the main driver for future ecotourism activities in the region.
In addition to this site-based work, there are a number of other ways in which conservation science helps to direct the management of the national park. The most important is probably the landscape surveys, which are conducted every five years to estimate the number of large mammals inhabiting the area. Unless the large mammal population is regularly counted in this way, it is impossible to know if conservation activities are attaining their objective. For the past decade and a half, large mammals have been monitored across the landscape every five years by foot surveys on line transects, providing population estimates for elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, as well as data on the presence of rarer large mammals such as bongo and buffalo. Information on poaching and other illegal activities is also collected.
The park has also often been the site for research and development into new advances in conservation science and technology, including aerial videography, remote cameras and acoustic monitoring techniques. Advances in conservation science have been strengthened by an extensive capacity building program. Congolese students and biologists have participated in all science and research activities, starting with the first Japanese research teams that worked in the area, through to the development of the Mbeli, Goualougo and Mondika site-based projects, to the landscape-wide line transect surveys. 70 Congolese researchers are currently employed across the whole WCS program, while a dozen staff from NNNP alone have obtained Masters degrees or doctorates from Europe, the US and universities across Africa over the past two decades.
