Thank you gorillas!
For four years, during missions that were spread over several months in the forest, the young researcher set about finding gorilla nests, harvesting their faeces (taking advantage of the abundant amount of fecal matter in the nest sites), in order to examine the seeds contained in the faeces and identifying and testing their germination conditions in various types of substrates and environments. This type of work, which is both laborious and somewhat adventurous, is facilitated by the partnership approach developed by the Forestry Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Regions of Gembloux, which is today an integral part of the Forestry Management Axis of Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech: in exchange for specialised scientific support (particularly for management plans designed in the context of certification frameworks like the “Forest Stewardship Council”, FSC), the researchers and doctoral students from the university benefit from logistical facilities within vast field study areas which are relatively well-preserved. In the present case, Barbara Haurez was able to complete her study in a forestry concession of some 600,000 hectares, managed by the Swiss company Precious Woods. Washing dung in clear waterOnce the dung were collected (making up about one kilo per unit and carried on the back…) they were washed in river water using sieves that are normally used for cooking. The purpose of this was to gather the seeds and begin the work of identifying them, mostly visually, with the help of a botanist. “During the twenty months spent gathering the seeds, I counted 59 plant species dispersed by the gorillas. One third of these species were of economic interest because of their use in the timber industry or non-timber forest products (Omvong - Dialium pachyphyllum; Ossabel - Dacroydes normandii; Adjouba - Dacroydes klaineana; etc.). The dung contained several dozen or even several hundred intact seeds (up to 500). But on average, they contained two different species. The most common were the Ebo (Santiria trimera), which is a small tree (ten to twenty metres in height) varying in colour from grey to a shade of yellow and whose fruit, is also eaten by humans, the Longhi (Chrysophyllum lacourtianum) and the Omvong (Dialium pachyphyllum), a larger species (up to 30 metres) whose larger individuals are generally indicative of older forests. The fruit of the Longhi and the pulp surrounding the seed of the Omvong are enjoyed by gorillas and humans alike. I also found a large quantity of Aframomum sp. or wild ginger. The fruit of this herbaceous plant is consists in a softish red shell containing seeds in a slightly sweet and spongy tissue”. The dispersion of these four types of seeds by the gorillas is good for the local communities because, apart from crops such as the banana or the cassava, the villagers stock up on forest fruits both for food and traditional medicine. The gorillas clearly participate in the regeneration of species that supply fruit, roots and wood to human populations. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
© 2007 ULi�ge
|
||