Post-release monitoring of chimpanzees in Guinea, West Africa

Great ape rehabilitation centres across Africa continue to witness an increase in residents, often orphans of the bushmeat and pet trade or victims of people’s intolerance towards sharing resources and space with their closest living relatives. As wild populations decline, releasing individuals back to the wild is increasingly perceived as a viable conservation option. However, few projects have ever released African Great Apes successfully, and information on predictors of rehabilitation and release success remain scarce. The Chimpanzee Conservation Center (CCC) in the High Niger National Park is the only sanctuary caring for chimpanzee orphans in Guinea, West Africa. In 2008, in view to reinforce the wild chimpanzee population of the HNNP and to enhance park protection, the CCC released 6 male and 6 female chimpanzees into the main core area of the park. Five of those individuals have since settled at the release site and continue to be monitored. In 2011, the CCC successfully added 2 adult females to this resident group. Post-release monitoring of released individuals involves distance monitoring using simple VHF and/or ARGOS and GPS store-on-board radio collars. GIS data generate information on release individuals’ social dynamics, habitat preferences, day and home range use. Our results highlight the costs and benefits of employing different post-monitoring tracking technologies and how these act to inform release success.