Behavioural ecology and group cohesion of juvenile western lowland gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) during rehabilitation in the Bateke Plateaux National Park, Gabon.

ABSTRACT: Rehabilitation of animals followed by reintroduction into the wild can benefit conservation by supplementing depleted wild populations or reintroducing a species in an area where it has been extirpated or become extinct. The western lowland gorilla (WLG, Gorilla g. gorilla) is persistently poached; infants are often illegally traded and used as pets. Some are confiscated and rehabilitated, then kept in sanctuaries or reintroduced into the wild. Prior to reintroduction, the ability of the orphans to survive independently in their environment needs to be assessed. Here, we performed a multivariate analysis, including diet composition, activity-budget, and pattern of strata using of a group of five juvenile WLG in the process of rehabilitation and distinguished three sub-periods of ecological

SUBMITTER: Le Flohic G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4374851 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature