The trainer in Mbakaou camp in the northern sector of Mbam and Djerem National Park.

Cameroon is considered as one of the most diverse country in central Africa with a network of protected areas covering 20% of its national territory, within which the Mbam and Djerem National Park (MDNP). MDNP is located in the forest-savanna ecotone area in the central Cameroon between 5 ° 30 ' & 6° 13' N and 12 ° 13 ' & 13 ° 10 ' E. It covers an area of about 416,512 hectares and shelters the Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ellioti), the most endangered and poorly known of all currently recognized chimpanzee subspecies, with a total remaining population at between 3,500 and 9,000 living in forested habitat in the north of the Sanaga River in Cameroon and the eastern edge of Nigeria. MDNP has been considered as top priority zone for the conservation of this species by IUCN and given a wide range of its habitat, understanding their effect on the density of P. t. ellioti, the only species of great apes found in MDNP can infer important information about ecological adaptation and evolution.

Close to 29,000 people inhabits the periphery of MDNP and depend on the park resources for their subsistence, emphasizing the need of sufficient data to model the density and occupancy of chimpanzee population in MDNP.To answer our research question, an interview of populations around MDNP and a surveys of chimpanzees base on the Standing Crop Nest Counts from line transects has been used. Cybertraker (database design) and the combine software packages R, Distance 7.0 (survey design), Quantum GIS 2.14.3 Essen and Presence has been used for data gathering and analysis. We have developed a typology of human-chimpanzee interactions (conflicts and cultural interactions), and have estimated the density of chimpanzee in their suitable habitat (feeding, nesting and degree of anthropogenic threats). We are currently testing the effect of different covariates (forest, savanna, threats,) in order to provide a basis to predict the viability of chimpanzee’s population in the MDNP. And the nest decay rate activity will be carried out between November 2016 and April 2017 as well as the monitoring of chimpanzees in their suitable habitat.