Journal ArticleDOI
Catastrophic ape decline in western equatorial Africa
Peter D. Walsh,Kate Abernethy,Magdalena Bermejo,Rene Beyers,Pauwel De Wachter,Marc Ella Akou,Bas Huijbregts,Daniel Idiata Mambounga,Andre Kamdem Toham,Annelisa M. Kilbourn,Sally A. Lahm,Stefanie Latour,Fiona Maisels,Fiona Maisels,Chrisitian Mbina,Yves Mihindou,Sosthéne Ndong Obiang,Ernestine Ntsame Effa,Malcolm Starkey,Malcolm Starkey,Paul Telfer,Marc Thibault,Caroline E. G. Tutin,Lee J. T. White,David Wilkie +24 more
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
Survey results conservatively indicate that ape populations in Gabon declined by more than half between 1983 and 2000, and gorillas and common chimpanzees should be elevated immediately to ‘critically endangered’ status.Abstract:
Because rapidly expanding human populations have devastated gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) habitats in East and West Africa, the relatively intact forests of western equatorial Africa have been viewed as the last stronghold of African apes1. Gabon and the Republic of Congo alone are thought to hold roughly 80% of the world's gorillas2 and most of the common chimpanzees1. Here we present survey results conservatively indicating that ape populations in Gabon declined by more than half between 1983 and 2000. The primary cause of the decline in ape numbers during this period was commercial hunting, facilitated by the rapid expansion of mechanized logging. Furthermore, Ebola haemorrhagic fever is currently spreading through ape populations in Gabon and Congo and now rivals hunting as a threat to apes. Gorillas and common chimpanzees should be elevated immediately to ‘critically endangered’ status. Without aggressive investments in law enforcement, protected area management and Ebola prevention, the next decade will see our closest relatives pushed to the brink of extinction.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus
Eric M. Leroy,Brice Kumulungui,Xavier Pourrut,Pierre Rouquet,Alexandre Hassanin,Philippe Yaba,André Délicat,Janusz T. Paweska,Jean-Paul Gonzalez,Robert Swanepoel +9 more
TL;DR: Evidence of asymptomatic infection by Ebola virus is found in three species of fruit bat, indicating that these animals may be acting as a reservoir for this deadly virus.
Journal ArticleDOI
Attosecond spectroscopy in condensed matter
A. L. Cavalieri,Norbert Müller,Thorsten Uphues,Vladislav S. Yakovlev,Andrius Baltuška,Balint Horvath,B. E. Schmidt,L. Blumel,Ronald Holzwarth,Stefan Hendel,Markus Drescher,Ulf Kleineberg,Pedro M. Echenique,Reinhard Kienberger,Ferenc Krausz,Ulrich Heinzmann +15 more
TL;DR: The ability to obtain direct time-domain access to charge dynamics with attosecond resolution by probing photoelectron emission from single-crystal tungsten is demonstrated and illustrates thatAttosecond metrology constitutes a powerful tool for exploring not only gas-phase systems, but also fundamental electronic processes occurring on the attose Cond timescale in condensed-matter systems and on surfaces.
Journal ArticleDOI
Multiple Ebola Virus Transmission Events and Rapid Decline of Central African Wildlife
Eric M. Leroy,Pierre Rouquet,Pierre Formenty,Sandrine Souquière,Annelisa Kilbourne,Jean-Marc Froment,Magdalena Bermejo,Sheilag Smit,William B. Karesh,Robert Swanepoel,Sherif R. Zaki,Pierre E. Rollin +11 more
TL;DR: Recovered carcasses were infected by a variety of Ebola strains, suggesting that Ebola outbreaks in great apes result from multiple virus introductions from the natural host.
MonographDOI
Biodiversity, Ecosystem Functioning, and Human Wellbeing: An Ecological and Economic Perspective
TL;DR: In an age of accelerating biodiversity loss, this timely and critical volume summarizes recent advances in biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research and explores the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Journal ArticleDOI
The last frontiers of wilderness: Tracking loss of intact forest landscapes from 2000 to 2013
Peter Potapov,Matthew C. Hansen,Lars Laestadius,Svetlana Turubanova,Alexey Yaroshenko,Christoph Thies,Wynet Smith,Ilona Zhuravleva,Anna Komarova,Susan Minnemeyer,Elena Esipova +10 more
TL;DR: It is shown that global IFL extent has been reduced by 7.2% since the year 2000, largely driven by the tripling of IFL tropical forest loss in 2011–2013 compared to that in 2001–2003.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Combination of 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes with flow cytometry for analyzing mixed microbial populations.
TL;DR: Fluorescent oligonucleotide hybridization probes were used to label bacterial cells for analysis by flow cytometry and the intensity of fluorescence was increased additively by the combined use of two or three fluorescent probes complementary to different regions of the same 16S rRNA.
Journal ArticleDOI
Distance Sampling-Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Anaerobic ammonium oxidation discovered in a denitrifying fluidized bed reactor
TL;DR: Anaerobic ammonium oxidation is a new process in which ammonium is oxidized with nitrate serving as the electron acceptor under anaerobic conditions, producing dinitrogen gas, and has been given the name ‘Anammox’ (anaerobic ammonia oxidation), and has be patented.
Journal ArticleDOI
Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations
TL;DR: This book presents a meta-modelling framework for estimating the probability of detection on the line or point in the context of tuna vessel observer data to assess trends in abundance of dolphins in the North Atlantic.
Book
The Kingdon field guide to African mammals
TL;DR: Mammals primates bats insectivores elephant shrews hares rodents carnivores pangolins aardvark hyraxes elephant horses rhinos hippos pigs chevrotain deer giraffes bovines antelopes African environments conservation.
Related Papers (5)
Pandemic human viruses cause decline of endangered great apes.
Sophie Köndgen,Sophie Köndgen,Hjalmar S. Kühl,Paul K. N'Goran,Peter D. Walsh,Svenja Schenk,Nancy Ernst,Nancy Ernst,Roman Biek,Pierre Formenty,Kerstin Mätz-Rensing,Brunhilde Schweiger,Sandra Junglen,Sandra Junglen,Heinz Ellerbrok,Andreas Nitsche,Thomas Briese,W. Ian Lipkin,Georg Pauli,Christophe Boesch,Fabian H. Leendertz,Fabian H. Leendertz +21 more