https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=490 Entrées d’index fr 0 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1550 Created in 1934 in Eastern Rwanda, the Akagera National Park (ANP) has been the scene o f two introductions and one reintroduction of large ungulates. Two male and four female black rhinoceros, a species which never lived before in the ANP but was present in Tanzania, beyond the river Akagera matching approximately the international border and working as a biogeographical barrier, were introduced in 1957 ; these animals reproduced and spread over the whole savanna. Their real number was never accurately known as the y were regularly poached by Rwandeses and Tanzanians. About ten specimens were still living before the Rwandese war and at least four at the end of 1996. The last elephants living in the ANP were noticed in 1960-61 before the species was reintroduced in 1975. The government had decided to eradicate a population of some 150 individuals causing trouble to peasants in the Bugesera ; all large, aged animais were shot whereas 25 young ones were transferred into the ANP, where they settled in the lakes border zone. There were 45 individuals before the war and these seem to have escaped from damages. The giraffe is considered a species never living for historical times in the area presently known as ANP. A personal deal between the president of Kenya and the former president of Rwanda resulted in the introduction in 1986 of six young animals – two males and four females - in order to improve the park diversity and attractiveness. Scientists were reluctant. The animals reproduced, extended their home range, and their numbers grow up : they resisted the war and some 20 individuals were still living in December 1997. The reintroduction in the ANP of the elephant from a Rwandese population was legitimous. The introduction of the black rhinoceros was questionable. The introduction of giraffes had no biological justification and was opposed by scientists : they were sure that the operation would be a wreckage. Paradoxically, it is thanks to the presence of giraffes that the new governmental authorities decided it was worth preserving 100 000 ha of the park, considering that the giraffe investment had to be saved. Non-scientific arguments succeeded where biological ones had not… Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:42:50 +0100 Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:49:37 +0100 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1550 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1577 Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:48:27 +0100 Wed, 13 Mar 2024 12:30:48 +0100 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1577 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1568 In the Republic of Congo, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are in a very critical situation. mainly due to the destruction of their habitat and to poaching. Situated in the south of the country, the Faunal Reserve of Conkouati (144 000 ha) hosts, since 1991, a sanctuary for orphan chimpanzees managed by the H.E.L.P. Project (« Habitat Ecologique et Liberté des Primates ») and Mrs Alielle Jamart. She had created a nursery in Pointe-Noire, in 1989, which has been moved two years later in Conkouati Laguna, where the government allocated three islands to the association, now recognized as an N.G.O. During our stay (February to July 1996), the project took charge of 44 chimpanzees and a few other primates. Most ot them (31) were ranging half- freely on the islands, the last 13 forming the new nursery. Though not self-sufficient, these animals are well-readapted to their natural environment. The purpose of this project is to protect chimps and help them to return to a wild habitat. An adequate zone (The Triangle) has been delimited to try a release of some individuals, under scientific and veterinary monitoring. At present, there have been two « positive » attempts, but more time is needed to claim these are really successful. Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:47:59 +0100 Wed, 13 Mar 2024 12:29:10 +0100 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=1568 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=472 The Capercaillie has disappeared from the Belgian Ardennes at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Several reintroductions in Germany near the border in the late eighteenth and the early twentieth century have allowed some birds to reestablish small local populations which survived until 1933. The question arose as to the opportunity of a reintroduction in the Hautes Fagnes-Eifel Natural park. This problem is examined against the discussions conducted in Colmar in 1981 by two dozen specialists from France, Central and Northern Europe. The Capercaillie populations are on the decline in most parts of their european range since world war the second, and are near to become extinct in numerous traditional sites in Western and Central Europe, mainly in France, Germany and Bohemia. Factors affecting the population level are diseases, too high game-ungulates densities, atmospheric pollution (sharp rains), disturbance through touristic invasion, but all authors agree that the root of the problem is the development of modern sylviculture implying densification of the forest-roads network, spreading of phyto-sanitary products, and overall splitting and destruction of the habitat. This very sedentary bird needs indeed all its vital recquirements on a small area in mixed heterogenous forests with open wetter spaces for displaying and courting on the lek, dense shrub layer and plenty of preferred plants as food - blueberry shrub especially -, big old trees as roosting sites. Small population isolates disappear here and there. Numerous reintroduction programms have been conducted in the past 150 years. Very few succeeded, as in Scotland; most failed ! A special interest is granted to a raising experiment in progress in order to reintroduce the species in the Massif central in France, from where it disappeared two centuries ago; the young birds are released as soon as they have completed their post-juvenile moult, in a good heterogenous regenerated and planted forest; good attention is paid to the ontogeny of the behaviour and the adaptiveness of the birds to their new habitat. The aim is to produce enough birds to allow the building up of at least one reproductive social unit. Nevertheless, if the species is to be saved in those places from where it has not yet vanished, its vital habitat recquirements should be taken into consideration; plantations should be undertaken for long period through natural regeneration with small changes with time in natural ecological successions; clearings, borders should be multiplicated and diversity enhanced. Some experiments are in progress in Sweden, Switzerland and Black Forest of Germany, in order to achieve a compromise between conservation and economic recquirements. In France, forest management recommandations have been formulated by the national forestry service, since foresters are responsible for the structure and quality of the habitat: plant composition of the differents layers, importance of the clear-cuttings, length of the forest exploitation cycles. From all these considerations and experiments, it seems clear that conditions for a successful reintroduction of capercaillie in the Hautes-Fagnes are not prevailing at the present time. We need first to controll the public invasion and to improve the habitat suitability. But contacts with consultants and follow up of the Cevennes programme should be wellcommed. Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:06:31 +0100 Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:13:48 +0100 https://popups.lib.uliege.be/2984-0317/index.php?id=472