Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) Diet Composition and Food Availability in a Human-Modified Landscape at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau

Throughout their range, chimpanzee populations are facing widespread conversion of their suitable habitat to human-modified landscapes dominated by agriculture. Cultivated foods may offer alternative resources to chimpanzees, particularly during periods of wild fruit scarcity. We assessed intra-seasonal variation in dietary composition and diversity of chimpanzees at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau, a forest-savannah mosaic disturbed by humans, in relation to food availability. A phenological study was conducted from March 2011 to February 2012 by sampling focal plant taxa. Macroscopic analyses of faecal samples and feeding remains were conducted during the dry season (February-May and October-December) of 2011. More fruits were available in the dry than in the wet season and ripe fruit availability peaked in the late dry season. Chimpanzees showed a fruit-based diet composed of 31 identified plant species. Faecal samples were dominated by wild species (82.38%), while cultivated species were rare (0.87%; 16.75% unidentified). Chimpanzees chose wild fruit species disproportionately to their overall availability. There was no significant association between dietary composition and distances among faeces, suggesting that chimpanzees have access to and largely use the same set of plant species over the entire study area. Moreover, no influence of settlements or roads as proxies for the presence of cultivated areas was found on dietary composition. Our findings highlight that chimpanzees in this human-modified landscape still mostly rely on the consumption of wild fruit species and rarely include cultivated foods in their diet. This underscores the importance of preserving remnants of native vegetation within agriculture-dominated landscapes to ensure persistence of chimpanzee populations and the maintenance of the seed dispersal services they provide.