Eric Djomo Nana

University of Oxford | OX · Department of Zoology

Turacos are birds used as status symbols in certain African cultures. Despite this cultural value, turacos are increasingly threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting. We tested the hypothesis that the high cultural value associated with turacos means local people are willing to conserve them and their habitats. To this end, we examined the tra...

Tropical bird species are characterized by a comparatively slow pace of life, being predictably different from their temperate zone counterparts in their investments in growth, survival and reproduction. In birds, the development of functional plumage is often considered energetically demanding investment, with consequences on individual fitness an...

Macrophysiological research is vital to our understanding of mechanisms underpinning global life history variation and adaptation under diverse environments. Birds represent an important model taxon in this regard, yet our knowledge is limited to only a few physiological traits, mostly studied in temperate and Neotropical species. Here, we examined...

Coevolutionary processes that drive the patterns of host–parasite associations can be deduced through congruence analysis of their phylogenies. Feather lice and their avian hosts have previously been used as typical model systems for congruence analysis; however, such analyses are strongly biased toward nonpasserine hosts in the temperate zone. Fur...

To test if tree species richness and forest structure drive spatial variation in avian communities along a tropical elevation gradient and to present information about the role of detailed forest parameters. A 2,000‐m long elevational gradient of tropical forest on Mt. Cameroon, west‐central Africa. Birds and trees. We performed bird censuses and v...

Indigenous populations often have poorer health outcomes than the general population. Marginalization, colonization, and migration from traditional lands have all affected traditional medicine usage, health access, and indigenous health equity. An in-depth understanding of health for specific populations is essential to develop actionable insights...

Forest management practices that aim to mitigate the threats of deforestation and forest degradation can inadvertently threaten the ability of forest-dependent local populations to meet basic daily sustenance needs. Stakeholder engagement can help find common ground between environmental goals and the livelihood needs of local populations. A starti...

La culture maraîchère constitue un emploi durable et stable pour une grande partie de la population en Afrique subsaharienne et contribue grandement au PIB des pays dans cette zone. Cette agriculture constitue un facteur majeur dans la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle des populations urbaines Africaines. Cette activité est mise en péril par l...

Two impact assessment tools, Toro’s recent method and Leopold’s matrix, were used in a complementary manner to predict the impacts of constructing a hydroelectric power plant in eastern Cameroon. We chose these two tools because of their relative simplicity, objectivity and good weighting of environmental indicator values compared to others. While...

The usual positive inter-specific relationship between range size and abundance of local populations can have notable exceptions in Afrotropical montane areas, where range-restricted bird species are unusually abundant. We tested how the area occupied locally by passerines and their geographic range size relate to local abundances along a tropical...

Nest predation is assumed to be an important factor driving avian life histories. Altitudinal gradients offer valuable study systems to investigate how avian nest predation risk varies between bird populations. In this study, a hypothesis postulating an increase in avian nest survival rate with elevation as a result of decreasing predation pressure...

Acoustic signals are frequently used for estimating avian species richness, abundance and community composition. However, sampling by traditional methods of bird surveys is often limited by availability of experienced researchers in the field, especially in the tropics. New bioacoustic approaches offer some solutions to such limitations and provide...

Local people living near protected areas can either be a threat to conservation or allies. Whether they take actions which are consistent with conservation or detrimental to conservation depends in part on the costs and benefits associated with each action. Incorporating the views of these local people in the process of decision-making and providin...

The western mountain greenbul, Andropadus tephrolaemus, is a poorly-known monomorphic forest greenbul. We investigated whether morphological measurements could be used to discriminate between sexes of this species, with a sample of birds captured in two forest types on Mt Cameroon. We used discriminant function analysis based on a combination of tr...

The western mountain greenbul, Andropadus tephrolaemus, is a poorly-known monomorphic forest greenbul. We investigated whether morphological measurements could be used to discriminate between sexes of this species, with a sample of birds captured in two forest types on Mt Cameroon. We used discriminant function analysis based on a combination of tr...

Nest predation is the leading cause of reproductive failure in birds and thus it shapes their life history strategies. Intensities of nest predation appear to differ among nest locations and types in both temperate and tropical regions. However, there is limited knowledge of factors influencing susceptibility of avian nests to predation in Africa....

The Cameroon volcanic line montane forests host specific avian assemblages with many endemic species. Such unique bird assemblages deserve adequate description for proper protection. For this purpose, we sampled birds in the upper montane forests of Mts Cameroon and Oku situated at 2,250 m. We combined point counts and continuous observations to de...

Urban rivers play important roles in providing water resources for human, and ecosystem survival. Urban river water quality is therefore an important parameter that must be monitored. The lack of appropriate basic urban infrastructures, coupled to the rapidly increasing human populations in tropical cities, has led to an advanced state of pollution...

All authors with their affiliations appear at the end of this paper This paper is dedicated to future Tropical Biology Association (TBA) students, who we hope will expand and refine the Kirindy pollination web. Abstract—Tropical dry deciduous forest is an endangered ecosystem whose plant-pollinator relationships are little known. We characterised a...