Research

PHENOLOGY: Phenology is the study of biological cycles, most often used in reference to the study of plant leafing, flowering, and fruiting patterns. Since many primate species are frugivorous or folivorous but have highly flexible diets and live in tropical forests with distinct wet and dry seasons, knowing what is available for an animal to eat and when is very important. For this reason, phenology studies often become the backbone of long-term primate research sites, giving researchers critical insights on the ecology and conservation of a species. Phenology studies also provide baseline measurements from which to monitor environmental change.

At Lac Télé, my research team and I established phenology transects and forest plots in four of the reserve’s forest subtypes: hardwood swamp forest, dry forest, raphia-dominated swamp forest, and seasonally flooded forest. During this process, we relied on the botanical expertise of local elders to identify plant species and determine which species of fruting trees were eaten by great apes. Subsequently, we trained local teams in villages adjacent to these monitoring sites in data collection methods, making sure to include both village elders and youth on each team to facilitate intergenerational knowledge transmission. For one year, they scored the amount of fruit, leaves, and flowers present on over 700 trees known to be important in the diets of great apes.

*To see some great photos and stories about my phenology project and the reserve more broadly, check out Thomas Nicolon's Instagram page! (the first photo above is his).

DIETARY ECOLOGY:To complement our monitoring of fruit availability across the reserve, each research team collected gorilla and chimpanzee fecal samples during transect walks. These samples were then sequenced using a DNA metabarcoding approach which allows us to identify the plant species present in each sample. We aim to see what role fruit species play in the diets of these sympatric large-bodied mammals relative to its seasonal abundance across the habitat.

ETHNO-ECOLOGY: At Lac Télé, great apes cannot be habituated as they are in other protected areas due to their accessibility to hunters. Thus, despite the reserve serving as a great ape stronghold, few traditional observational methods can be used to understand why they thrive in a seasonally-flooded and human-inhabited swamp forest. Below, I explain the large part of my research that engaged social science methods. While our qualitative work in Lac Télé’s local communities covered a wide range of themes and issues, one of the primary goals of my research was to understand the ecology of gorillas and chimpanzees from the perspective of the people who have lived alongside them for generations. This meant that I asked people across the reserve not only what their relationship was to these animals, but moreover what they knew about their behaviors, interactions with other species, and other ecological questions.

The people living in the reserve retain livelihoods that are tightly linked to the forest and river’s natural resources. With little dry land available for cultivation in the swamps, most people practice a mix of fishing, hunting, gathering, and small-scale farming. The majority of the population have deep ancestral ties to the reserve’s land and have detailed knowledge of the plants, animals, and processes of the forests surrounding their villages. That knowledge, however, is being lost rapidly — a process that began during the colonial period with the introduction of Western religions and the demonization of traditional practices. It continues today due to the increasing pressures of globalization (development, market integration…) and climate change.