The jet-black to streaked ebony wood produced by the African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora Hiern, Ebenaceae) is exploited in Central and West Africa. A conservation effort is currently underway in Cameroon to propagate the tree through seedlings and cuttings. However, the intermittent availability of its seeds and the long time required for rooting formation of cuttings are limiting its propagation. This study aims to develop a successful protocol for ebony micropropagation. In vitro culture of nodal segments from seedlings was performed in half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with either zeatin (0.0, 2.3, 4.6, 9.1, 13.7, 18.2, 22.8, and 27.4 µm) or 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) (0.0, 2.2, 4.4, 8.8, 13.3, 17.8, 22.2, and 26.6 µm). After 12 weeks, all media allowed shoot budbreak. Shoots displaying the greatest budbreak were observed with 22.8 µm zeatin and 22.2 µm BAP. The shoots were then transferred to a medium supplemented with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and phloroglucinol (PG) at different concentrations for root induction. Root induction was observed on the shoots initially induced in the medium with BAP, but not in those grown in the medium with zeatin. In half-strength MS supplemented with 396.5 µm PG plus 14.2 µm IBA, the formation of a single tap root was observed on 79% of shoots, with an average root length of 2.8 ± 0.18 cm. Rooted plants were successfully acclimatized to the greenhouse, with a 50% survival rate. This is the first report on Diospyros crassiflora micropropagation, which paves the way for rapid ebony multiplication to respond to needed conservation efforts.

Giant ground pangolins (Smutsia gigantea) are poorly known and difficult to study due to their nocturnal and burrowing habits. Here, we test the efficacy of using camera traps on potentially active burrows identified by local Ba’Aka guides to rapidly locate giant ground pangolins in the wild for subsequent observation and tagging for telemetry studies. We deployed nine cameras on potential giant ground pangolin burrows in the Dja Biosphere Reserve, Cameroon. One camera photographed an adult male giant ground pangolin using a burrow within 2 days of camera deployment. The pangolin used the same burrow several times over a 25-day period and possible scent-marking behavior was recorded.

Animals disperse seeds in various ways that affect seed deposition sites and seed survival, ultimately shaping plant species distribution, community composition, and ecosystem structure. Some animal species can disperse seeds through multiple pathways (e.g., defecation, regurgitation, epizoochory), each likely producing distinct seed dispersal outcomes. We studied how seed traits (size and toughness) interact with disperser species to influence seed dispersal pathway and how this ultimately shapes the proportion of seeds deposited in various habitat types. We focused on three frugivorous species of duikers (African forest antelopes) in the Dja Faunal Reserve, a tropical rainforest in southern Cameroon. Duikers can both defecate and regurgitate seeds, the latter predominantly occurring during rumination at their bedding sites (or "nests"). We located duiker nests and dungs along 18 linear 1-km-transects to assess: (1) how seed traits affect the likelihood of dispersal via defecation versus regurgitation, (2) if defecated versus regurgitated seeds are deposited at different rates in different forest types (assessed by indigenous Baka), microhabitats, and forest structural attributes (measured by drone lidar), and (3) if these differ between three duiker species that vary in size and diel activity patterns. We found that duikers predominantly defecated small seeds (<3 mm length) and regurgitated larger and tougher seeds (>10 mm length), the latter including 25 different plant species. The three duiker species varied in their nesting habits, with nocturnal bay duikers (Cephalophus dorsalis) nesting in dense understory vegetation at proportions 3-4 times higher than Peter's and yellow-backed duikers (Cephalophus callipygus and Cephalophus silvicultor). As a result, bay duikers deposited larger regurgitated seeds at a higher rate in habitats with denser understory where lianas and palms predominate and near fallen trees. This directed regurgitation seed deposition likely plays an important and unique role in forest succession and structure. This study highlights the importance of ungulate seed dispersal by regurgitation, a vastly understudied process that could impact many ecosystems given the prevalence of ruminating ungulates worldwide.