Small Mammal Surveys In The Drc

The Nkuba Conservation Area (NCA) is a protected habitat for the often ignored and critically endangered lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei) of eastern DRC. Over the past 12 years the Fossey Fund has developed impressive infrastructure, employing 160 local residents that monitor and track gorilla movements/habitats as well as promote local community support and sustainable activities such as agriculture, husbandry, fish farming, youth and adult education, and aspects of biodiversity including tree phenology and carbon storage and now, small mammals. “This impressive field team has been previously trained in data gathering, documentation and the use of GPS, and are a pleasure to work with,” says Julian. Research Associate Terrence Demos is continuing small mammal survey work, this time focusing on bats, with longtime Research Associate Paul Webala (Maasai Mara University, Kenya). Terry has secured an MOU agreement with colleagues at the Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelle (CRSN) de Lwiro, the federal institution with whom the team has worked previously. As Julian observes, “prospects look bright for the future of this program as in addition to Terry, Dr. Holly Lutz (FM Research Associate and incoming Curator of Mammals at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science) is developing plans for host-pathogen work in the region. Congolese MSc aspirant Jean Marie Kibiswa is using the data collected for his proposed MSc study, and other enthusiastic Congolese participants look forward to other opportunities.” Highlights from the trip include the collection of such iconic Congo basin taxa as the otter shrew (Potamogale velox), the Hammer-headed Bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus) and the hero shrew (Scutisorex spp.), the rare rat, Congomys verschureni, the small poorly known Zenker’s Fruit Bat or Tear-drop Bat (Scotonycteris zenkeri) and the Little Collared Fruit Bat (Myonycteris torquata), and a host of small shrews (species indeterminate, for now). Lowlights, according to Julian, include “a body coated in insect bites and associated allergic reactions, and wasting an entire week in Goma, due to alleged GPS jamming by the M23 rebel group, which prevented my UN helicopter from departing for the field.” Urbain Ngobobo, the Fossey Fund Director for the DR Congo, noted in an e-mail, “this training and associated research is extremely important for our staff, the majority of whom come from local forest-owning communities that make up the NCA (ca 2400 sq kms.) and who are expected to continue the work of conserving this forest massif, whose biological diversity remains to be discovered.”
September 6. 2024