Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Coastal Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, United States of America
  • 2 Biological Sciences Graduate Program, Federal University of Maranhão, Chapadinha, Maranhão, Brazil
  • 3 Eastern Shore Regional GIS Cooperative, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD, United States of America
PLoS One, 2022;17(11):e0277440.
PMID: 36367876 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277440

Abstract

Global and spatially explicit information about the interaction between habitat and wildlife species is critical to enhancing conservation efforts. Despite the recognized importance of mangrove forests to non-human primates, the relationship between the two lacks understanding. To counter this, we created the MangPrim-21 database to map and measure the locations of interactions between all non-human primates and all mangrove forests globally. We report our findings across the global, national, and local scales for all inventoried non-human primates and all inventoried mangrove forests. Globally, we find that half of all non-primates potentially use mangrove forests, and more than half of the global mangrove forest falls within the delineated range of at least one non-human primate species. Nationally, we find that Indonesia, Madagascar, Brazil, Cameroon, and Malaysia likely have the most non-human primate and mangrove forest interactions. At the subnational level, we find that several discrete locations in Kalimantan are critical to both mangrove forests and non-human primates. The MangPrim-21 database provides a globally consistent and locally applicable database of non-human primate and mangrove forest interactions. The results presented have broader implications for non-human primate and mangrove conservation and global actions to protect both. Additionally, our results raise questions about the idea that non-human primates primarily use mangrove forests as a refuge from human encroachment and habitat degradation.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.