Authors
Lisa Ohrndorf, Augustin Brouillet, Annika M Zuleger, Ndiouga Diakhaté, Djibril Coly, Chérif Younousse Kéba Camara, Amadou Bamba Diedhiou, Irene Gutiérrez Díez, Julia Fischer, Dietmar Zinner
Published in
Ecology and evolution. Volume 16. Issue 7. Pages e74005. Epub Jul 10, 2026.
Abstract
West African savannahs provide habitats to diverse species assemblages, yet remain understudied compared to their East and Southern African counterparts. The Niokolo-Koba National Park in southeastern Senegal constitutes one of the largest remaining protected areas in West Africa and supports a mosaic of savannah and forest habitats with a diverse assemblage of medium- and large-sized mammals. Here, we analysed camera-trap data originally collected to monitor predator presence in the northwestern sector of the National Park. We deployed 37 cameras across 37 km2 from February 2022 to March 2023, resulting in 13,080 camera-trap days. We assessed diversity indices and spatiotemporal activity patterns of large and medium-sized mammals across habitat types. Evenness values-the degree to which species abundances are distributed uniformly within a community-were higher in the savannah than in forest habitats, although overall species richness was comparable. Estimated diel activity mostly corresponded with established species-specific behavioural patterns. Our analyses revealed differential use of certain habitat types throughout the day, likely driven by spatially segregated sleeping and foraging sites. Our results provide a reference for future studies and monitoring efforts and highlight the value of the forest-savannah mosaic for the local species assemblage within the larger ecosystem of Niokolo-Koba National Park.
PMID:
42437096
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Jul 2026.
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