Evaluating Leopard Predation Pressure on Chimpanzee Temporal and Spatial Habitat Use in West Africa
Date
2025
Authors
Stockdale, Sarah
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Publisher
University Of Victoria
Abstract
Leopards pose a significant predatory threat to chimpanzees and there have been many documented aggressive interactions recorded in areas of shared habitat. Leopards and chimpanzees co-occur in much of their West-African range. However, due to the elusive nature and large habitat-dependent home ranges of both species, their use of sympatric habitat is not well understood. We used camera trap data to understand, for the first time, how leopards and chimpanzees share habitat spatially and temporally. We investigated spatio-temporal overlap across seven sites in West Africa in forested and savannah-woodland habitats. Camera trap data was used to build generalized linear mixed models to investigate how the role of habitat and the activity of heterospecifics affected leopard and chimpanzee spatio-temporal activity. We found that the two species generally avoid each other temporally, with stronger avoidance in the savannah. Spatially, there was significant overlap, particularly on trails, at chimpanzee nest sites, and on natural bridges. This overlap could be driven by anthropogenic influence, prey-tracking by leopards, or the pursuit of a common resource. These results have significant implications for our understanding of chimpanzee sociality and behaviour, and offer broader insights into the complex interactions between predator and prey in diverse ecological contexts.
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Keywords
predator-prey, habitat use, foraging patterns, chimpanzee, leopard, behavioural ecology