Status of medium-sized ungulate populations in 2010, at the Nazinga Game Ranch, Burkina Faso (Western Africa)

The present study consists of analyzing the raw data collected from the annual line-transect foot count of medium-sized ungulates, carried out at the Nazinga Game Ranch (NGR), Burkina Faso (Western Africa), in both 2001 and 2010. The annual census focused on the seven main medium-sized ungulates, namely (in alphabetical order), the Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), the Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), the Defassa Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus), the Grimm's Duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia), the Oribi (Ourebia ourebi), the Roan Antelope (Hippotragus equinus) and the Western Hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus). The census also focused on illegal anthropogenic activities. The wildlife populations were quantitatively analyzed through an estimation of their absolute density via the distance sampling method and through their evolution over the last decade using two relative density indexes, namely the Kilometric Abundance Index (KAI) and a spatial distribution index. These indexes were also used to measure the evolution of illegal activities over the same period. Both the wildlife observations and the anthropogenic observations were mapped using the Kernel method. Following an increasing trend in their population between 2001 and 2010, both the Roan Antelope and the Western Hartebeest reached an estimated density of 4.7 individuals per km(2), while the Defassa Waterbuck reached 2.4 individuals per km(2). Following an inverse trend over the same period, the Bushbuck, the Grimm's Duiker and the Oribi reached an estimated density of 0.4 individuals per km(2). As for the Common Warthog, its estimated density of 2.5 individuals per km(2) seemed to remain unchanged during that decade. A comparison between wildlife observations and anthropogenic observations reveals a high decrease in animal densities in the north, east and west peripheral borders of the NGR and a flagrant extension of the proportion of the ranch being subjected to illegal activities (poaching, cattle herding, etc.).