Multiplying Factors of Disturbance of Mammalian Fauna during Evolution in the Itombwe Nature Reserve in DR Congo

Abstract

The Itombwe Nature Reserve, like many other protected areas, is home to a relatively diverse and particularly important mammalian fauna. But over time there have been disturbances that have exposed this fauna to serious threats within this protected area. This work aims to bring out, through a descriptive analysis, the multiplying factors which have contributed to the disruption of mammalian wildlife over the course of its evolution in the Itombwe Natural Reserve, since 1998. The responses of 332 interviewers, hunters, bushmeat suppliers and sellers as well as artisanal miners through semi-structured discussions and focus groups, 79.5% support the idea of species decline, 16% rarity and 4.5% stability. It follows that in the Itombwe Nature Reserve there are several multipliers that are at the root of species alteration including political conflicts leading to the creation of armed groups that take refuge in the reserve and engage in different exploitation of resources, socio-economic developments, for a poor population that must survive as well as the growing influence of hunting. Two factors have impacted the evolutionary trend of species; firstly the extrinsic or anthropic emanating from armed groups, logging, intense hunting, increase in hunters, gold panning and demand from the bushmeat market. Second, the intrinsic arising from the size, slow gestation, large litter of young, territoriality, group living and cosmopolitanism species. A spatial distribution over different types and periods of observation emerged to explain the trend of disturbance focused mainly on the emblematic species of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Itombwe Natural Reserve; these are Gorilla gorilla , Loxodontha africana , Manis gigantea , Manis tricuspus , Panthera pardus , Pan troglodytes and Syncerus caffer .