Happy #Caturday! African golden cats

Happy #Caturday! African golden cats (Caracal aurata) are small wild cats living in the forests of West and Central Africa. The fur coloration varies from grey to reddish-brown and melanistic (black) individuals are also known. The Chimp&See camera trap footage shows some of these variations.

Leopards in the forest - new Chimp&See mini-project on predators

In December, we started another mini-project on Chimp&See preparing to assess predator density at the research sites. What sounds a little dry and analytical is actually quite exciting: with the help of our volunteers, we will identify individual leopards to get a clear picture of how many of them live in an area. These big and beautiful cats are known to prey on smaller primates and ungulates, but do not necessarily stop for bigger species, like chimpanzees.

Leopards in the forest – a short introduction 
 
We have already seen leopards on our camera traps at several sites in West and Central Africa. Leopards are the largest forest predators; at the savannah site Dry Lake we’ve seen leopards and lions alike. Much knowledge about leopards comes from the better known open habitats in East and South Africa, whereas forest leopards need to be studied better in their unique environment. Here, leopards do not have any other competition by big cats (no lions or cheetahs in the forest). The only other major predators are eagles - that are more relevant to more arboreal species - and the chimpanzees themselves.

Forest leopards live in the dense and moist rainforest with limited visibility of potential prey. As rainforests do not have a markedly seasonal rhythm like savannahs, there are also no significant prey migrations, offering a constant, but smaller supply of potential food for these carnivores. As a consequence, their home ranges are thought to be bigger than in open savannahs and woodlands, and the density (the number of individuals per square kilometer) to be higher. Although leopards are territorial and solitary, we expect a considerably overlap of their territories.

Leopards are opportunistic hunters. In addition to ungulates and smaller mammals, leopards hunt monkeys, but also chimpanzees and bonobos. Usually, they hunt prey smaller or equal in body size than themselves, but are known to successfully attack prey animals much bigger, like the large-bodied Jentink’s duikers. They prefer more terrestrial primate species that live in big groups, like sooty mangabeys. Forest leopards hunt mainly during the day and on the ground with an activity peak at dawn and dusk. This daytime hunting follows the diurnal activity pattern of their main prey species. Savannah leopards on the other hand, and also leopards in closer proximity to human settlements, prefer hunting at night – also because other competitors (e.g., lions) might prefer daylight hunting or steal the prey.

Leopard matching at Chimp&See 

To assess the predation risk of chimpanzees and other primates, we therefore need to know how many leopards live at one site. The mini-project will attempt this goal in two steps: first, we will tag all leopard videos with the respective age classes and, if possible, sex of the individuals as well all visible body sides to prepare for a direct comparison of the fur pattern. In a second – but eventually parallel – step, we compare this pattern and other traits of the leopards to assign individual IDs. The leopard fur pattern of dark spots and rosettes is highly individual and allow confident identification of an individual – at least if we get the same body side on camera twice. A detailed tutorial helps the volunteers to discuss their findings and present their arguments on the discussion board.

A detailed tutorial explains how to compare the fur patterns of leopards and present findings

Once a leopard is identified as the same individual in two separate video sequences, the volunteers can name it. Everybody can try it. Like all cats, leopards are extremely beautiful, elegant, and powerful animals. Even if you do not find a match, a close look on our footage is worth all your time.

• Chimp&See collection of leopard videos 
• List of known and prospective leopards

References

• Jenny D. Spatial organization of leopards Panthera pardus in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast: is rainforest habitat a ‘tropical haven’? Journal of Zoology, November 1996. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1996.tb05296.x 
• Zuberbühler K, Jenny D. Leopard predation and primate evolution. J Hum Evol. 2002 Dec;43(6):873-86. 
• Boesch C. The effects of leopard predation on grouping patterns in forest chimpanzees. Behaviour 117 (3-4) 1991
• Bailey T. N. 1993. The African Leopard: Ecology and Behavior of a Solitary Felid. Columbia University Press, New York, 429 pp.

The lion of Gabon is back on camera

More camera trap images of the Gabon lion & a great article too! A big thank you to our collaborators at this site!: Agence Nationale Des Parcs Nationaux Du Gabon, Panthera and The Aspinall Foundation

http://tinyurl.com/mr2kx8v

Leopard cubs in Gabon

A little taste of what's to come on Chimp&See (in late 2016 or 2017) and what's happening in the field right now! This is from southeast Gabon and part of our collaborative work with the Agence Nationale Des Parcs Nationaux Du Gabon, The Aspinall Foundation and Panthera.

Dry Lake Lion!

#DailyZoo User jim pea found our first West African Lion! 
http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP0006mk4 

(thanks to moderator AnLand for tweeting it first!)

West African Leopard

Each week we will highlight some of the great clips from Chimp&See - Today, some really nice leopard footage from West Africa!

Videos here: 

http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP00036ak

http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP00036au

What might you see on Chimp&See?

The Chimp&See Videos are collected by our dedicated PanAf site managers and collaborators from 40 temporary and long-term research sites across Africa.

What can you expect when you are scanning through the videos?

Sometimes you will see blank videos because maybe leaves or a bug triggered the camera.

Sometimes you will see our site managers and field staff testing the cameras and adjusting the settings, so prepare for some nostril shots!

But hopefully a lot of the time you will see some of the unique wildlife from many different chimpanzee habitats!

Before submitting their videos to Chimp&See, our site managers need to quickly scan the videos to make sure the cameras are working properly and set up at locations that actually record animals.  During some of these scans some amazing observations have already been made!

In January we released a press release with our partners the Ngogo Chimpanzee Project, Ugandan Wildlife Authority, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology  and Panthera

You can read the whole press release here: 
First Known Footage of African Golden Cat Hunting in Daylight Captured in Uganda

Samuel Angedakin, Project Manager at our collaborative Kibale Forest site in Uganda, recorded this amazing footage of an African Golden Cat hunting some monkeys, the first time ever this has been recorded (spoiler alert: the cat goes home hungry): 

More recently, Ivonne Kienast, Project Manager at our collaborative site in Bateke Plateau Gabon (in cooperation with the Aspinall Foundation and Panthera) recorded a male lion on several of her camera traps. This marked the first time a lion had been seen in Gabon since the last century and has already drawn focus and conservation action to the region to encourage natural repatriation of lions to the area.

The full press release can be found here:
Back from the Brink of Extinction: Lion Returns to Central African Homelands in Gabon

We hope you find many more exciting discoveries on Chimp&See! Make sure to hashtag interesting species and discuss interesting videos in Talk! Thank you so much for your help and support!