Le palmier à huile ({Elaeis guineensis}) et les noyaux de biodiversité des forêts-galeries de Guinée maritime : à propos du commensalisme de l'homme et du chimpanzé

Elisabeth Leciak (1) , Annette Hladik (2) , Claude Marcel Hladik (2)

1 ADES - Aménagement, Développement, Environnement, Santé et Sociétés
2 EAE - Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), occurring with a remarkably high density in the northwestern coastal area of Guinea, provides a key resource to the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), including food and nesting sites. However no evidence of nut cracking has been observed, although potential tools are available and are occasionally used by humans. The abundance of food resources in the gallery forest, and the availability, throughout the year, of the pulp of the oil palm may explain the absence of this peculiar behavior, observed in other areas of Guinea. In the Kanfarandé area, where the home range of groups of chimpazees overlap the shifting cultivations of local populations, the commensality is characterized by peaceful relationships. Some parts of the gallery forest are efficiently protected by traditional beliefs preventing penetration. Such cores of rich biodiversity, maintained through a social system allowing commensality with apes, presently play an important role for species dispersal and regeneration.

Mots clés: palmier à huile; chimpanzé; alimentation

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Elisabeth Leciak, Annette Hladik, Claude Marcel Hladik. Le palmier à huile ({Elaeis guineensis}) et les noyaux de biodiversité des forêts-galeries de Guinée maritime : à propos du commensalisme de l'homme et du chimpanzé. Revue d'Écologie, 2005, 60, pp.179-184. ⟨hal-00276626⟩