Primate and ungulate abundance in response to multi‐use zoning and human extractive activities in a Central African Reserve

This study examines the abundance of key mammal species at the Dzanga‐Sangha Reserve (RDS) in the Central African Republic with respect to conservation zoning and human activities in the reserve. RDS has been funded as an integrated conservation and development project since the mid‐1980s. This study illustrates distinct wildlife responses to logging and hunting in RDS sectors that vary in protection and enforcement levels and the erosion of some critical animal communities across the RDS in the face of challenges of increasing human populations and flows of arms and ammunitions there. Our results show elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis) to be appreciably absent close to human settlements, and increasingly vulnerable to hunting in the more integrally protected sectors far from town. We have found that duikers (Cephalophus sp.) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) make use of recently logged areas but are vulnerable to hunting there. These species are now most abundant farthest from human settlements. Our results have implications for the formulation of adaptive management plans that would benefit from the inclusion of nuanced understandings of site‐specific and species‐specific responses to microhabitats and the particular kinds of human extractive activities and challenges in the region.