Threat to Red capped Mangabey in Southwest Nigeria

Protected-areas are assumed to be the last refuge for wildlife, yet the uneven competition between wildlife and man for this habitat has been of great concern to conservationists in relation to the continued survival of the... [ view full abstract ]

Protected-areas are assumed to be the last refuge for wildlife, yet the uneven competition between wildlife and man for this habitat has been of great concern to conservationists in relation to the continued survival of the animals in their natural habitat. This study used line transect method to assess the extent of human/wildlife conflict within Idanre Forest reserve and Omo Biosphere reserve, Southwest Nigeria. A total of eighteen (18) transects comprising of 9 transects each and totaling 103.4 km were traversed in both Idanre Forest Reserve (52.8 km) and Omo Biosphere Reserve (50.6 km) between January 2014 and November 2015. Data were collected on human activity-encounters in five major categories: Poaching/hunting; Logging; Farming; Collection of Non-Timber Forest Products and Human settlements and analyzed into frequency counts and percentages. The result of encounter-rate observations of human activities shows that Farming was predominant in Idanre Forest reserve withstanding crop, harvested land, farmers seen,bush burning and land clearing at 20.75, 18.32, 14.02, 12.02 and 10.84 observations per kilometer respectively.Poaching/hunting was predominant in Omo Biosphere reserve with animal kill, hunters seen/gunshot heard, spent cartridges, traps/snares and ash deposits/spent batteries seen at 1.11, 0.66,0.23, 0.14 and 0.07 observations per kilometer respectively. These human activities which have implications for habitat loss and degradation were more prevalent in IFR than in OBR. Therefore, it is necessary to step up conservation and protection measures in the reserves to reduce the impact of human activities.