1990/03/01 by David S. Wilkie, David Wilkie, John T. Finn · 92 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Abundance (ecology) #Agroforestry #Archaeology #Biology #Ecology #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Forestry #Geography #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Mammal #Plant Parasitism and Resistance #Rainforest #Slash (logging) #Slash-and-burn #Tropical rain forest #Tropics
paper · doi:10.2307/2388723
published in Biotropica 22(1), 90 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 1990/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Historically the Ituri forest of northeastern Zaire has been exploited only by small bands of pygmy hunter-gatherers and isolated groups of shifting cultivators. Enforced village resettlement in the 1940s and increasing immigration from the densely populated southeastern highlands has caused a considerable expansion of clearing for horticulture in some regions of the forest. As a consequence, large, coterminous zones of Musanga cecropioides-dominated secondary forest now border the roads. To assess the impact of forest clearing for subsistence farming on the diversity and abundance of terrestrial mammals, tracks and pellet groups were counted over a one year period within three five-ha uncut climax forest sites and three five-ha post-agricultural secondary forest sites. Relative diversity and abundance of terrestrial mammals were comparable to other central African rain forests. Of 19 species identified, only Okapi, yellow-backed duikers, and leopards were less abundant in post-agricultural forest. Smaller duikers seem unaffected by forest clearing for subsistence farming, even though they are an important food source for humans. Habitat loss, or hunting pressure, has reduced the abundance of larger ungulates near villages.