Reaffirming the Loma Mountains National Park in Sierra Leone as a critical site for the conservation of West African chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus).

The population of West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) is declining rapidly mostly due to the impact of human activities and habitat loss. Sierra Leone harbors the third largest population of this subspecies, recently reclassified as Critically Endangered in the 2016 IUCN Red List. Population monitoring provides crucial data for planning and evaluating conservation and management policies.

Mobonda Community Conservation Project: Chimpanzees, oysters, and community engagement in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone constitutes the western boundary to the West Africa Upper Guinea Rainforest, one of 35 global biodiversity hotspots. The country is home to the third-largest western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) population, a subspecies upgraded to Critically Endangered on the 2016 IUCN Red List. The main threats facing chimpanzees in Sierra Leone are habitat loss and increasing interactions with humans.

Factors influencing wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) relative abundance in an agriculture-swamp matrix outside protected areas.

Human population growth and anthropogenic activities are exacerbating pressures on biodiversity globally. Land conversion is aggravating habitat fragmentation and non-human primates are increasingly compelled to live in forest-agricultural mosaics. In Sierra Leone, more than half of the wild chimpanzee population (Pan troglodytes verus) occurs outside protected areas and competes for resources with farmers.

Bushmeat trade consequences predict higher anxiety, restraint, and dominance in chimpanzees.

More data are needed for a better understanding of the long-term influence of wider and combined stressful events in chimpanzee personality development. We evaluated the effects of bushmeat trade outcomes on the personality development in 84 African sanctuary chimpanzees. The chimpanzees presented different backgrounds regarding maternal care, social exposure, and abuse.

The saliva microbiome of Pan and Homo.

Background: It is increasingly recognized that the bacteria that live in and on the human body (the microbiome) can play an important role in health and disease. The composition of the microbiome is potentially influenced by both internal factors (such as phylogeny and host physiology) and external factors (such as diet and local environment), and interspecific comparisons can aid in understanding the importance of these factors.

Results: To gain insights into the relative importance of these factors on saliva microbiome diversity, we here analyze the saliva microbiomes of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) from two sanctuaries in Africa, and from human workers at each sanctuary.

High diversity at PRDM9 in chimpanzees and bonobos.

Background: The PRDM9 locus in mammals has increasingly attracted research attention due to its role in mediating chromosomal recombination and possible involvement in hybrid sterility and hence speciation processes. The aim of this study was to characterize sequence variation at the PRDM9 locus in a sample of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos.

Methodology/principal Findings: PRDM9 contains a highly variable and repetitive zinc finger array.

[Patriarchate as a cause of violence; the difficulty to identify abusive relationships in one's own home].

Why in the 21st century do women continue to accept and endure the use of physical, verbal and psychological force as an inherent condition to their status as a woman and yet refuse to denounce this violation of their human rights?

Transmission of human and macaque Plasmodium spp. to ex-captive orangutans in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Data are lacking on the specific diseases to which great apes are susceptible and the transmission dynamics and overall impact of these diseases. We examined the prevalence of Plasmodium spp. infections in semicaptive orangutans housed at the Orangutan Care Center and Quarantine, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, by using a combination of microscopic and DNA molecular techniques to identify the Plasmodium spp.

Bone assessment of free-living red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) from the United Kingdom.

Metabolic bone disease has been reported in free-living red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) in the United Kingdom but the prevalence of this disease is unknown. In this study the bone quality of free-living red squirrels in the UK was assessed by radiology and bone densitometry. The study comprised 20 red squirrels found dead and submitted to the Zoological Society of London (UK) between 1997 and 1998, 10 were from the Isle of Wight (IoW), where gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) are absent, and 10 were from Cumbria (Cu), where gray squirrels are present.