Yahoo – AFP,
January 20, 2018
Spotted hyenas have been spotted in Gabon for the first time in 20 years (AFP Photo/ISSOUF SANOGO) |
Libreville
(AFP) - A spotted hyena has been sighted in a Gabon national park for the first
time in 20 years, conservationists said Friday, the latest large predator to
have returned to a region where many had gone locally extinct.
The Bateke
Plateau National Park lies close to Gabon's border with the Republic of Congo.
Its forests
and grasslands once teemed with wildlife, including many large mammal predators,
but the ecosystem was decimated by decades of poaching.
Officials
said a spotted hyena had been caught on camera traps in the park for the first
time in two decades giving hope that more large mammals might return after
years of conservation efforts.
The
sighting comes two years after a lone male lion was photographed by camera
traps after returning.
"The
return of these large carnivores is a great demonstration that the efforts of
our rangers and partners are having a positive effect on Bateke wildlife,"
professor Lee White, director of Gabon's National Parks Agency said in a press
release.
The spotted
hyena was so unknown in recent memories that when researchers showed local park
rangers the photographs from the camera traps they did not know the species.
But village
elders in communities north of the park instantly recognised the hyena,
researchers said.
The
sightings are a far cry from when researchers first set up their camera traps
in 2001.
That year
all they photographed in Bateke was a lone antelope and multiple poachers
crossing into the park from the Republic of Congo.
The lion
first spotted in 2015 has since made the park his home. But he has yet to be
joined by any others.
"This
lion... has been continuously photographed during his three-year reign of the
park, but remains alone, calling for a mate," the researchers said.
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