A major challenge in evolutionary science has been the reconstruction of the evolution of language in the world. Given that language does not fossilise, a key line of research has been focusing on comparing the communication systems of animals with that of humans. Unique to human language is the capacity to flexibly recombine a limited…
In one of the first studies of its kind, our innovative Community Camera Trapping Programme demonstrates how local communities monitor their own wildlife populations through camera traps. Our team is using camera trap distance sampling to develop conservation strategies for critically endangered species. Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: logging, poaching, overexploitation and…
The COVID-19 pandemic, affecting all countries, with millions of cases and deaths, and economic disruptions due to lockdowns, also threatens the health and conservation of endangered mountain gorillas. For example, increased poaching due to absence of tourism income, led to the killing on 1st June 2020 of a gorilla by a hungry community member hunting…
Tourists could be spreading the virus causing COVID-19 to wild mountain gorillas by taking selfies with the animals without following precautions. Researchers from Oxford Brookes University examined 858 photos posted on Instagram from 2013-2019 under two hashtags — #gorillatrekking and #gorillatracking — and found most gorilla trekking tourists were close enough to the animals, without…
A Cameroonian government decree allowing logging in a forest that is home to the rare Ebo gorilla and other endangered species, like chimpanzees, forest elephants and grey parrots, has been cancelled. The decree, which was signed mid-July, had sparked outrage among local communities and conservation groups. In total 68,385 hectares of virgin forest would be…
Rainforest Rescue released a petition protesting the Cameroonian government’s move to open 150,000 hectares of Ebo Forest – an area the size of Greater London – to logging. The logging concessions would impact one of Africa’s great biodiversity hotspots. Ebo Forest is the habitat of a possible new subspecies of gorilla, as well as a…
GUINEA, WEST AFRICA – The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA)—the largest alliance of wildlife centers in Africa—has announced the launch of Action for Chimpanzees (AFC), a program to curtail the illicit trade of western chimpanzees for bushmeat and the pet trade, and prevent their impending extinction. By forging collaboration in West Africa and worldwide, AFC combines policy with direct action…
Uganda’s Ministry of Tourism Wildlife and Antiquities and the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration reveal that the number of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the 340-square kilometer transboundary protected forest have increased to 459 from an estimated 400 in 2011 This announcement brings the global wild population of mountain gorillas to 1,063 when combined with the published…
Gorillas have more complex social structures than previously thought, from lifetime bonds forged between distant relations, to “social tiers” with striking parallels to traditional human societies, according to a new study. The findings suggest that the origins of our own social systems stretch back to the common ancestor of humans and gorillas, rather than arising…
Language, music, and art often vary between adjacent groups of people, and help us identify not only ourselves but also others. And in recent years rich debates have emerged and spawned research into culture in non-human animals. Scientists first observed chimpanzees using tools more than half a century ago. As this complex behaviour appeared to…