John Hart

Inst Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN)

Hybridization and introgression are widespread in nature, with important implications for adaptation and speciation. Since heterogametic hybrids often have lower fitness than homogametic individuals, a phenomenon known as Haldane’s rule, loci inherited strictly through the heterogametic sex rarely introgress. We focus on the Y-chromosomal history o...

Forest loss and overhunting are eroding African tropical biodiversity and threatening local human food security, livelihoods, and health. Emblematic of this ecological crisis is Africa's most endangered group of monkeys, the red colobus (genus Piliocolobus). All 17 species, found in forests from Senegal in the west to the Zanzibar archipelago in th...

Hybridization between distinct lineages is widespread in nature, with important implications for adaptation and speciation. If hybrids are fertile, alleles can introgress across species boundaries. Hybrid fitness is often sex dependent, with heterogametic hybrids showing lower fitness than homogametic individuals, a phenomenon known as Haldane’s ru...

Humans and other primates harbour complex gut bacterial communities that influence health and disease, but the evolutionary histories of these symbioses remain unclear. This is partly due to limited information about the microbiota of ancestral primates. Here, using phylogenetic analyses of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), we show that hundreds...

The malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum causes substantial human mortality, primarily in equatorial Africa. Enriched in affected African populations, the B*53 variant of HLA-B, a cell surface protein that presents peptide antigens to cytotoxic lymphocytes, confers protection against severe malaria. Gorilla, chimpanzee, and bonobo are humans’ clo...

Understanding the impact of hunting on wildlife is necessary to protect biodiversity in remote, endangered ecosystems, where rural communities depend on bushmeat as sources of food and income. Unsustainable hunting has led to a major decline in mammal population densities across Africa, especially for ungulates and primates. The objectives of this...

Earth’s environments harbor complex consortia of microbes that affect processes ranging from host health to biogeochemical cycles. Understanding their evolution and function is limited by an inability to isolate genomes in a high-throughput manner. Here, we present a workflow for bacterial whole-genome sequencing using open-source labware and the O...

Examining the relationship between food and primate social organization helps us understand how the environment shaped hominin social evolution. However, there is debate as to whether the social differences between our two closest relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), are due to differences in food availability betwee...

Hunting of species not protected by national law and during open hunting season is authorised by Maniema Province regulations in the buffer zone of the Lomami National Park (LNP). Since 2017, vouchers tally numbers and species of authorised bushmeat, as well as shotgun ammunition and snare cable transported across LNP on established tracks. The vou...

One of the current threats to the bonobo (Pan paniscus), a highly endangered ape species only found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, are anthropozoonoses caused by human respiratory viruses. To date, epidemiological information regarding respiratory viral infections in bonobos is limited. In this study, we examined fecal immunoglobulin A an...

Ranging from forests in Senegal to the Zanzibar Archipelago, red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus spp.) are the most threatened group of African monkeys. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM in 2020, every form of red colobus monkey is threatened with extinction, and 14 of the 18 taxa (>75%) are listed as Critically Endangered or End...

The natural history and taxonomic status of two central African primates, Cercopithecus dryas and Cercopithecus salongo have long been in question. Recent studies confirmed that C. dryas is a basal member of the savanna monkey clade, and that it prefers dense undergrowth in lowland rainforest. While these studies advanced our knowledge of this enig...

The Endangered dryas monkey Cercopithecus dryas , endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of Africa's most enigmatic primates. The discovery of a dryas monkey killed by a hunter in the buffer zone of Lomami National Park in 2014 prompted field research on the species’ distribution, habitat use and stratum preference. We used local k...

Objectives: The little known guenon Cercopithecus dryas has a controversial taxonomic history with some recognizing two taxa (C. dryas and C. salongo) instead of one. New adult specimens from the TL2 region of the central Congo Basin allow further assessment of C. dryas morphology and, along with CT scans of the juvenile holotype, provide ontogene...

Significance The CD4 protein of primates has undergone rapid diversification, but the reasons for this remain unknown. Here we show that within-species diversity of the HIV/simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) envelope (Env) binding (D1) domain is common among African primate species, and that these polymorphisms can inhibit SIV Env-mediated cell en...

IUCN Red List Assessment https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T40646A92573316.en e.T40646A92573316 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/40646/92573316

De Jong, Y.A., Cunneyworth, P., Butynski, T.M., Maisels, F., Hart, J.A. & Rovero, F. 2020. Colobus angolensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T5142A17945007. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T5142A17945007.en.

Objectives: The guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are a diverse and primarily arboreal radiation of Old World monkeys from Africa. However, preliminary behavioral observations of the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis), a little-known guenon species described in 2012, report it spending substantial amounts of time on the ground. New specimens allow us...

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020. PDF not yet available, but web page here: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18262/96192471 e.T18252A92659769

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020 PDF not yet available, but web page here: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18262/96192471 Page: e.T18262A96192471

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019. e.T865A17952193 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/865/17952193

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T136615A17955862. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/136615/17955862

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T4219A17946517 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4219/17946517

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T4223A17947167 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4223/17947167

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T92411527A17945650. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/92411527/17945650

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species e.T12309A17951936 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/12309/17951936

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T92466239A92467162 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/92466239/92467162

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T95587156A95587295 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/95587156/95587295

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T13572A17953693 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/13572/17953693

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T18255A92660786 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18255/92660786

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019 e.T18257A92662288 https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18257/92662288

The Laverania clade comprises the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum as well as at least seven additional parasite species that infect wild African apes. A recent analysis of Laverania genome sequences (Otto TD, et al. 2018. Genomes of all known members of a Plasmodium subgenus reveal paths to virulent human malaria. Nat Microbiol. 3:687-...

In 1969, a public debate between President Nixon and Congress took place during the legislative passage of the National Environmental Policy Act and centered on two very different and competing conceptions of how presidential advice should be organized in the Executive Office of the President. It focused on the proposed establishment of the Council...

Genomic data can be a powerful tool for inferring ecology, behaviour and conservation needs of highly elusive species, particularly when other sources of information are hard to come by. Here we focus on the Dryas monkey (Cercopithecus dryas), an endangered primate endemic to the Congo Basin with cryptic behaviour and possibly less than 250 remaini...

Genomic data can be a powerful tool for inferring ecology, behaviour and conservation needs of highly elusive species, particularly when other sources of information are hard to come by. Here we focus on the dryas monkey, an endangered primate endemic to the Congo Basin with cryptic behaviour and possibly less than 250 remaining individuals. Using...

Classical ecology provides principles for construction and function of biological communities, but to what extent these apply to the animal-associated microbiota is just beginning to be assessed. Here, we investigated the influence of several well-known ecological principles on animal-associated microbiota by characterizing gut microbial specimens...

The living guenons (Tribe Cercopithecini) are largely an arboreal radiation, but the recognition of patas, vervets, and L’Hoest’s monkeys as a clade suggests a single evolutionary transition to terrestriality within the tribe. Recently, a new guenon species was discovered in the TL2 region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the lesula (Cercop...

Malaria parasites, though widespread among wild chimpanzees and gorillas, have not been detected in bonobos. Here, we show that wild-living bonobos are endemically Plasmodium infected in the eastern-most part of their range. Testing 1556 faecal samples from 11 field sites, we identify high prevalence Laverania infections in the Tshuapa-Lomami-Luala...

We report here where the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of bonobos (Pan paniscus) ranged and how they dispersed throughout their current habitat. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecular dating to analyze the time to MRCA (TMRCA) and the major mtDNA haplogroups of wild bonobos were performed using new estimations of divergence time of bonobos from o...

Lymphocryptovirus (LCV) is one of the major gena in the herpesvirus family and is widely disseminated among primates. LCVs of human and rhesus macaques are shown to be causative agents of a number of malignant diseases including lymphoma and carcinoma. Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are highly endangered and the least studied species of the great apes. Con...

Increasing exploitation of grey parrots in eastern DRC drives population declines - Volume 50 Issue 1 - John Hart, Terese Hart, Leon Salumu, Andrew Bernard, Robert Abani, Rowan Martin

The African elephant consists of forest and savanna subspecies. Both subspecies are highly endangered due to severe poaching and habitat loss, and knowledge of their population structure is vital to their conservation. Previous studies have demonstrated marked genetic and morphological differences between forest and savanna elephants and despite ex...

The okapi Okapia johnstoni, a rainforest giraffid endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo, was recategorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2013. Historical records and anecdotal reports suggest that a disjunct population of okapi may have occurred south-west of the Congo River but the current distribution and status of the okapi in this...

Breeding programs for endangered species increasingly use molecular genetics to inform their management strategies. Molecular approaches can be useful for investigating relatedness, resolving pedigree uncertainties, and for estimating genetic diversity in captive and wild populations. Genetic data can also be used to evaluate the representation of...

Estimating population sizes in the heavily traded grey parrots of West and Central Africa would provide insights into conservation status and sustainability of harvests. Ideally, density estimates would be derived from a standardized method such as distance sampling, but survey efforts are hampered by the extensive ranges, patchy distribution, vari...

Significance Stable carbon isotopes give diet information for both modern and fossil mammals and can be used to classify diets as C 4 grazers, C 3 –C 4 mixed, or C 3 browsers. We show that diets of some major African herbivore lineages have significantly changed over the past 4 million years by comparing fossils from the Turkana Basin in Kenya with...

The okapi Okapia johnstoni is an endangered, even-toed ungulate in the family Giraffidae, and is endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Okapi are highly elusive and very little is known about their behaviour and ecology in the wild. We used non-invasive genetic methods to examine the social structure, mating system and dispersal for a p...

Numerous protected areas (PAs) have been created in Africa to safeguard wildlife and other natural resources. However, significant threats from anthropogenic activities and decline of wildlife populations persist, while conservation efforts in most PAs are still minimal. We assessed the impact level of the most common threats to wildlife within PAs...

The okapi is an endangered, evolutionarily distinctive even-toed ungulate classified within the giraffidae family that is endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The okapi is currently under major anthropogenic threat, yet to date nothing is known about its genetic structure and evolutionary history, information important for conservation mana...

Plasmodium vivax is the leading cause of human malaria in Asia and Latin America but is absent from most of central Africa due to the near fixation of a mutation that inhibits the expression of its receptor, the Duffy antigen, on human erythrocytes. The emergence of this protective allele is not understood because P. vivax is believed to have origi...

Plasmodium vivax is the leading cause of human malaria in Asia and Latin America but is absent from most of central Africa due to the near fixation of a mutation that inhibits the expression of its receptor, the Duffy antigen, on human erythrocytes. The emergence of this protective allele is not understood because P. vivax is believed to have origi...

ABSTRACT Habitat loss and hunting threaten bonobos (Pan paniscus), Endangered (IUCN) great apes endemic to lowland rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Conservation planning requires a current, data-driven, rangewide map of probable bonobo distribution and an understanding of key attributes of areas used by bonobos. We present a rangewi...

Hominin fossil evidence in the Turkana Basin in Kenya from ca. 4.1 to 1.4 Ma samples two archaic early hominin genera and records some of the early evolutionary history of Paranthropus and Homo. Stable carbon isotopes in fossil tooth enamel are used to estimate the fraction of diet derived from C3 or C4 resources in these hominin taxa. The earliest...

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) inhabit regions south of the Congo River including all areas between its southerly tributaries. To investigate the genetic diversity and evolutionary relationship among bonobo populations, we sequenced mitochondrial DNA from 376 fecal samples collected in seven study populations located within the eastern and western limits o...

Summary of DNA experiments. (TIF)

Comparison of six clades of haplotypes with mean number of pairwise haplotype differences. Mean number of pairwise haplotype differences was compared within and between clades shown in Figure 2. Values of the diagonal indicate average number of pairwise differences within clades. Those above the diagonal are average number of pairwise differences b...

Comparison of population distances with results of test for their statistical significance. Values below the diagonal indicate estimates of population pairwise FST calculated assuming Tamura-Nei mutation model. Values above the diagonal indicate P values of permutaion test (n = 1,023) for the null hypothesis of FST = 0 by the software Arlequin vers...

Estimating population sizes in the heavily-traded Grey Parrot would provide invaluable insights into sustainability of harvests. However, the species’ huge range, current rarity, variable abundance, cryptic habits, mobility, along with difficulty of logistics and lack of resources may present insurmountable obstacles to its effective study. This pr...

In June 2007, a previously undescribed monkey known locally as "lesula" was found in the forests of the middle Lomami Basin in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We describe this new species as Cercopithecus lomamiensis sp. nov., and provide data on its distribution, morphology, genetics, ecology and behavior. C. lomamiensis is restricted...

Maximum likelihood tree, TSPY. Phylogram and bootstrap support values (500 replicates) were inferred using GARLI 0.951. The topology is identical to that inferred using a Bayesian approach (Fig. S2). Cercopithecus lomamiensis and C. hamlyni are reciprocally monophyletic. The scale at the bottom is in units of nucleotide substitutions per site. (PDF...

Bayesian tree, TSPY. Phylogram and clade credibility scores were obtained using MRBAYES 3.11. The topology is identical to the ML tree. The scale at the bottom is in units of nucleotide substitutions per site. (PDF)