Professor Jan Šobotník brings us fresh news from his field campaign - this time from Gabon! Along with his colleagues prof. David Sillam-Dusses a MS.C. Caroline Hoegh-Guldberg, he conducted a fieldwork, and as he puts it, there was plenty to discover.
After a few days in the capital city, Libreville—where the team met many interesting people - they explored several forest fragments accessible by taxi from the city. These forests, despite their location, are surprisingly well preserved. Obtaining all the necessary research permits proved to be quite the challenge, but thanks to the team's perseverance - especially prof. David Sillam-Dusses (a professor of ethology from Paris) - they managed to navigate the process successfully. The second part of their stay was spent in Ivindo National Park, near Makokou, at the Ipassa Research Station. There, they learned that the renowned entomologist Pierre-Paul Grassé conducted long-term research at the same station in 1960’s.
Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic, is a country on the west coast of Gulf of Guinea. Gabon, renowned for its biodiversity, is to Africa what the Amazon is to South America. More than 80% of the country is covered by primary rainforest and tropical savannas, home to over 8,000 plant species, 200 mammal species, and 600 bird species.
This unique preservation of Gabon is likely due to a combination of several favourable factors: a low population density (2.5 million people in 268,000 km2), abundant natural resources (oil, manganese), active conservation efforts, and a notoriously complex bureaucracy. The country relies almost entirely on imports for most major commodities, which further reduces pressure on local production (while driving prices to surprisingly high levels). Combined with a sparse road network, these factors help protect vast, impenetrable chunks of natural forest.
"During our research, we didn’t see many vertebrates. One exception was a viper that mysteriously appeared right beneath me," Professor Šobotník recalls. "Fortunately, no one was harmed. The fact that we didn’t see much is more of a rule than an exception, given the nature of our work," he adds. "The termite fauna, unsurprisingly, is very similar to that of southern Cameroon, but we still encountered several species new to us and greatly enjoyed working with our beloved termites."
