Gabriel Hoinsoude Segniagbeto

Université de Lomé · Department of Zoology

Organisms that are similar in size, morphological characteristics, and adaptations, including vertebrates, often coexist by partitioning the available resources (food, space, and time). So, studies of the dynamics of these cases of coexistence are scientifically interesting. Here, we study a coexistence case of two species of freshwater turtles inh...

The rodent assemblages were studied in different habitat types of the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park located in Togo, West Africa. A suite of different methods was applied, including face-to-face interviews with local hunters, live trapping along standardized transects and opportunistic observations. A total of 20 rodent species were recorded based...

Climate change affects biodiversity, notably by modifying species habitats. In the West African savannahs, amphibian species are widespread. Despite their importance in ecosystems, little is known about the potential impacts of future climate change on these amphibians, hence the need to study the future distribution patterns of West African savann...

The rodent assemblages were studied in different habitat types in the northern part of the Fazao-Malfakassa National Park located in central-western Togo, West Africa. A suite of different methods was applied, including face-by-face interviews with local hunters, live trapping along standardized transects and opportunistic observations. A total of...

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The Dahomey Gap in West Africa is a human-derived savannah-like vegetation zone interspersed by patches of moist forest, with large rainforest blocks at both West (Upper Guinean Forest) and East (Lower Guinean Forest) of its limits. Togo is a tiny country situated in the middle of the Dahomey Gap. In this paper, a biogeographic analysis of the comp...

Rainbow lizards (Agama agama) are common in suburban areas throughout Africa, and have an opportunistic foraging strategy, with arthropods being the main prey source. In a coastal resort in southern Togo, West Africa, several individuals in a population were observed while feeding regularly upon non-natural human-made food (pizza) and showing a cle...

The objective of this work is to evaluate the diversity and geographical distribution of amphibian species along a climatic gradient in Burkina Faso. To do this, field data have been collected. In the field, six sites were selected across the climatic zones of Burkina Faso. These data were analysed to identify the biological diversity of the differ...

Goliath beetles (genus Goliathus) are among the largest and most charismatic insects in the world. In West African forests, two species (G. cacicus and G. regius) and natural hybrids are found. These beetles are widely collected for the entomological trade. We carried out standardized interview campaigns in Liberia and Ivory Coast to explore local...

The Dahomey Gap is a human-derived savannah zone, interspersed by patches of moist tropical forest, that separates the forest zone into two blocks, the Upper Guinean and the Lower Guinean forests. Community ecology aspects of amphibians and reptiles are still relatively unexplored in this ecological zone of West Africa. Here, the overall species ri...

The Dahomey Gap” is a human-derived mostly savannah region that separates the Guinea-Congolian rainforest block into two major units: the Upper Guinean and the Lower Guinean Forest blocks. In this savannah dominated habitat, several forest patches are distributed throughout. The mammal communities in the Dahomey gap region have been poorly studied....

This is an obituary for William F. Perrin.

Studies of animal communities along habitat gradients are useful in understanding the ecologicsl factors affecting species diversity and richness. Almost no investigations have been carried out on the community structure of vertebrate groups along habitat gradients modified by humans in historical or prehistoric times. Here, we analyze the communit...

We assessed numbers and biomass of species hunted and sold for wild meat in 12 park-adjacent settlements in the Fazao Malfakassa National Park (FMNP), Togo. From hunter interviews and market carcass counts 33 species, 28 from hunter interviews and 26 from market surveys were taken, respectively. A total of 2605 animals were recorded in the study, 1...

The sexually dimorphic dynastine centaurus beetle, genus Augosoma (Coleoptera: Scarabeidae), is endemic to tropical Africa where two species are found (A. centaurus and A. hippocrates). These beetles are consumed by rural populations, cause damage in plantations and are targets of insect collectors and traders. We present information on size differ...

Assessment of the species' status for Kinixys homeana. Previously considered as VU, this tortoise species is now reassessed as Critically Endangered (CR)

In Togo, the illegal trade of African elephant ( Loxodonta africana ) ivory is widespread despite efforts made by the government to curtail these activities. By using data gathered from CITES institutions and natural resource management authorities in the country, we investigated the extent of ivory trafficking in Togo. We also conducted surveys in...

Forty-nine years after the last description of a slippery frog, we describe a seventh species of the genus Conraua. The new Conraua is endemic to the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, central Ghana, and is described based on genetic, bioacoustics, and morphological evidence. Recent molecular phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses support this pop...

Pangolins are considered among the most threatened mammal species, both globally and also in Africa. However, almost nothing is known on their status and distribution across wide areas of their range, particularly in West African countries. Here we assess the status and distribution of pangolin species in Togo. Fieldwork was carried out in five loc...

KEYNOTE POINTS 1. Innovations in technology and engineering regarding sensors and autonomous observation platforms have substantially increased observations of the ocean and allowed for those observations to be collected at finer temporal and spatial resolutions. 2.The networking and coordination of regional observation programmes has been promote...

For the first time in Togo, we used camera trapping to investigate the mammal community in Fazao‐Malfakassa National Park (FMNP), a forest and savannah mosaic landscape subject to poaching and other detrimental anthropogenic activity. We compiled a species inventory, that is species occurrence, habitat use and activity patterns during dry and wet s...

Studies on habitat gradients are particularly interesting for the community ecology theory, but almost no investigation has been carried out on community structure of any vertebrate groups along gradients of habitat that were modified by humans in historical or prehistorical times, such as for instance the Dahomey Gap in West Africa. Here, we analy...

Over 1.2 million wild-sourced African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) have reportedly been traded internationally since the 1970s, the majority of which were taken from the wild with serious implications for conservation, animal welfare and biosecurity. While international trade has mostly been for the pet trade, in some West African countries,...

Face-to-face interviews with local populations are often used to determine the distribution and population trends of elusive threatened species. Although interviewee responses may suffer from some bias, historical trends in the status of a species can be investigated from age-structured questionnaires. In this paper, we tested this idea by analysin...

In order to have reliable information on the extent of forest degradation and deforestation for adequate decision-making, the spatial and temporal dynamics of the protected area, Missahohe Classified Forest, were studied from Landsat imagery for the years 1986, 2001 and 2018. A diachronic analysis of the land cover (between 1986 and 2001, on the on...

We related the fi rst commented list of the amphibian species of Burkina Faso. To obtain contemporary data, we investigated six sites from July 2017 to September 2018. Th e survey is unique for West Africa in combining a variety of diff erent habitat types, e.g. Sahelian areas, grassland and woodland savannahs, fl oodplains, gallery forests and agr...

Pangolins are considered among the most threatened mammal species, both globally and also in Africa. However, almost nothing is known on their status and distribution across wide areas of their range, particularly in West African countries. Here, we assess the status and distribution of pangolin species in Togo. Fieldwork was carried out in five lo...

Pelagic fish, including sardines and anchovies (Order Clupeiformes), are the most common species taken by artisanal marine fisheries along the Togolese coast. We investigated fisher involvement as well as fish captures over a period of 10 years, particularly of the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus). Our results indicate that 60% of fishers...

Centrochelys sulcata, the African Spurred Tortoise (Family Testudinidae) is one of the largest terrestrial chelonians in the world, the largest extant continental tortoise, and the largest tortoise in Africa. Males are larger than females, and may exceed 100 kg in body mass, with a straight carapace length of up to 86.0 cm in males and 57.8 cm in f...

Our review of the CITES trade database confirmed that the ball python is the most exported species by Togo; with 1,657,814 live individuals-comprising 60% of all live reptiles-reported by importing countries since 1978 (almost 55,000 annually since 1992). In total, 99% of the ball pythons legally exported from Togo under CITES were intended for com...

The status of most vertebrates in the African Sahel is not well known. Among these, the African spurred tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata), a charismatic but also one of most threatened vertebrates in the Sahel, is still poorly studied. We investigated the status of this species, its potential distribution, habitat selection (at multiple spatial scale...

Captive reptiles are routinely identified as reservoirs of pathogenic bacteria and reports of reptile-associated infections relating to some species are well documented (e.g., salmonellosis). Currently, relatively little is known about the epidemiology and bacteria of ball pythons. We carried out a survey of ball python farms in Togo, West Africa t...

Traditional medicine beliefs are culturally important in some West African communities, where there is a thriving domestic consumer demand for wild animal derivatives. Yet, such practices can threaten the conservation of wild populations and negatively impact animal welfare. To identify those species most likely to be affected, we investigated wild...

The ball python ( Python regius ) is the single most exported live CITES-listed species from Africa, with a large proportion of snakes being sourced from Togo, West Africa, officially via a system reported nationally as “ranching”. This study represents the first in-depth review of ball python hunting being carried out by rural communities in Togo...

The ball python ( Python regius ) is the world’s most commonly traded python species for the “exotic” pet industry. The majority of these live snakes are produced via a number of python farms in West Africa that have been in operation since the 1960s and involved with “ranching” operations since the 1990s. However, to date no thorough taxonomic rev...

In sub-Saharan Africa, the management of buffer zones around protected areas do not often take into serious account the needs of resource exploitation by the local populations or the conservation needs of these areas. We described the ecological characteristics and management issues affecting the buffer zone around the Fazao-Malfakassa National Par...

To better understand the habitat preferences of the African spurred tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata), we tested possible associations between their distribution and land use, vegetation cover, the presence of roads, human settlements, and rainfall patterns, all of which affect the distributions of other tortoise species. African spurred tortoise dis...

Documented records of cetacean utilisation in West Africa (WAF) are scarce due to several limiting factors: (i) because illegal or considered illegal in most nations; (ii) no official catch statistics of cetaceans are maintained in any WAF nation; (iii) scarcity of long-term dedicated survey effort by academics or NGOs; (iv) landings at ports are o...

The meat of wild animals (bushmeat) is consumed extensively in many tropical regions. Over the past few decades bushmeat consumption has greatly increased, threatening the survival of some hunted species and the supply of animal protein to countless numbers of people. Understanding patterns of bushmeat consumption is thus vital to ensure the sustai...

Threat status of Colobus vellerosus.

No field studies have been conducted characterizing the habitat characteristics and eventual spatial resource partitioning between softshell turtles (family Trionychidae) in West and Central Africa. Here, we analyze the macrohabitat, microhabitat (along four variables), and apparent population abundance of Nile Soft-shelled Terrapin (Trionyx triung...

In large Sub-Saharan African cities bushmeat consumption is a major threat to many species. These sizeable urban populations generate an unprecedented demand for bushmeat. The study of the effect of age, sex and geographic location in bushmeat eating in African cities may offer valuable insights on which population groups to target in behaviour cha...

Coastal lagoons are important habitats in West Africa, being also irreplaceable for many species of fish. The community structure and the diversity patterns of their fish assemblages have however been poorly studied so far. In order to evaluate the community structure and diversity metrics of fish assemblages of one of these lagoons (Lake Togo, Tog...

Temperature profoundly influences the biology of ectotherm organisms, for example reptiles, which mostly regulate their body temperature behaviorally by shuttling between heat sources and sinks. The thermal quality of the environment directly affects the amount of time that a reptile takes to keep the body temperature within the optimal range. The...

Ecological data on ungulate mammals are poorly available for Togo (West Africa), also with regard to the populations inhabiting the various protected areas. In order to provide preliminary data on the ecology of Togolese ungulates, several field missions were carried out between September 2014 and August 2017 in the various ecological units conside...

Due to the increasing pressure exerted on Protected Areas in Togo by neighboring populations, the fauna and its habitat are constantly threatened. To sustainably manage the natural potential of the complex, a thorough knowl appears necessary. Indeed, the numbers and distribution of non wildlife conservation in that their poaching is evidence of the...

The forest hingeback tortoises Kinixys homeana and Kinixys erosa are two of the most declining African chelonians. Although the population size trends of these species have received att ention in some specific areas of West Africa, an overall perception of their declining trajectories are still largely unexplored. We used interviews with rural peop...

Land use change in sub‐Saharan Africa continues apace, but its role in driving the declines of Afro‐Palaearctic migrant birds is unknown. This is due partly to a lack of knowledge of migrants’ requirements on the wintering grounds, and of spatially explicit assessments of land cover change. We compared tree cover data derived from satellite remote...

The West African Black Mud Turtle, Pelusios niger (Family Pelomedusidae), is a freshwater turtle of medium size (carapace length to 35.5 cm) endemic to permanent wetlands in forested areas of West Africa, and is recognizable within the genus by its hooked maxillary beak. A median keel on the posterior vertebral scutes persists throughout life. The...

This dataset contains information on the presence and distribution of sea turtles in Togo. Observations were carried out through a network of ten ecoguards (local guides), facilitated by five fishermen, and coordinated by a field technician, all under the supervision of a scientific coordinator. Data on the occurrence or direct observation of sea t...

In large Sub-Saharan African cities bushmeat consumption is a major threat to many species. These sizeable urban populations generate an unprecedented demand for bushmeat. The study of the effect of age, sex and geographic location in bushmeat eating in African cities may offer valuable insights on which population groups to target in behaviour cha...

The vulture populations in West Africa are undergoing dramatic decline over the last 30 years. Their particular ecology and sociality makes them vulnerable to various risks, including environmental changes, poisoning and bioaccumulation of toxic substances from agricultural products, pesticides, and veterinary drugs used in cattle livestock. In add...

In this paper, the results of the first density investigations (via DISTANCE methodology on line transect surveys) for the threatened African spurred tortoise Centrochelys sulcata from West African Sahel (Niger and Burkina Faso) are reported. Spurred tortoises were encountered in 51.8% of Burkina Faso transects (n = 27) and in 60.7% of Niger transe...

Distribution locale et estimation des densités des primates dans la réserve transfrontalière du fleuve Mono, Togo (Afrique de l’Ouest). La réserve de biosphère de Mono est située dans le «Dahomey Gap» qui sépare la ceinture des forêts denses humides ouest-africaines en deux blocs forestiers : guinéen (occidental) et congolais (oriental). Cette disc...

Mortality of sea turtles in fisheries bycatch was studied along the coast of Togo, West Africa, in the period 2012-2015. Five species of sea turtles were observed: Lepidochelys olivacea and Chelonia mydas were the commonest species, whereas Caretta caretta, Eretmochelys imbricata and Dermochelys coriacea were much rarer. Turtles captured in fishing...

The distribution of West African primates is still poorly explored in Togo. Field data on distribution, abundance (kilometric index of abundance) and characteristics of primate habitat at six protected and unprotected areas of Togo are reported in this paper. Eight species and 831 primate individuals were visually recorded during field surveys. A f...

Conraua derooi is a Critically Endangered frog, endemic to the hilly forest region between Ghana and Togo, West Africa. Field surveys were conducted in the Togolese areas, considered to be potentially suitable for C. derooi in November 2015 and November 2016. The species was not encountered in several potentially suitable sites. However, C. derooi...