In a win for Nigeria’s only Indigenous grassroots conservation organization, camera traps installed in Ise Conservation Area have captured the first known video of a resident Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee. The individual, seen swinging between tree branches and feeding on figs, is a mature male in his prime, said Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder director of the South-West/Niger Delta Forest Project (SWNDF). “We are able to show the world these chimps for the very first time.” Camera traps at Ise captured the first video of a genetically unique Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee. Video courtesy of SWNDF The Ise Conservation Area, a small patch of tropical lowland rainforest spread across 3,300 hectares (8,000 acres), is the only forest left in a maze of human habitation. It has been battered by land degradation due to years of marijuana cultivation. The government of Ekiti state, where Ise lies, established it as a conservation area in 2020 to protect the iconic Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti). Endemic to the forests bordering the two countries, this great ape is the most threatened chimpanzee subspecies, with a combined estimated 3,500- 9,000 individuals left in the wild. Ikemeh estimates fewer than 25 chimpanzees remain in Ise. Separated from other populations in Nigeria by the Niger River, which is too wide for chimpanzees to cross, the reserve’s chimps are thought to be genetically distinct from other populations. “The few genetic samples collected suggest they are a distinctive group with a unique genetic history distinct from their counterparts in eastern Nigeria and western…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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