Projects | Kibale Ecology and Conservation Project

Cascading effects of climate change on primate habitats, behavior, and survival

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Aim

For long-lived animals, behavioral flexibility is essential in the face of rapid anthropogenic change. Therefore, we are examining how climate change impacts red colobus food availability, how the monkey adjust their behavior, and how climate, food availablity, and behavior together influence demographic patterns. Building on previous research on red colobus foraging and habitat use, and analyzing long-term leaf phenology data (1998 to 2021), our first results show that leaf production of preferred tree species are linked to solar radiation and atmospheric CO2 ( . Ongoing analyses investigate the behavioral and demographic consequences of these patterns.

Contact Information

Urs Kalbitzer, Laura Lüthy

Food Resource Landscapes

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Aim

Many aspects of animal behavior and life histories are have been associated to the spatial and temporal distribution of food resources. For example, in primates and other animals, the spatial concentration (clumpedness) of foods impacts competitive regimes and social structure, while seasonality of foods influences reproductive timing. Past research often relied on coarse dietary categories (e.g., leaves vs. fruit). Therefore, our goal is to develop finer-grained maps of food resource distributions to test socioecological and life-history hypotheses.

Analyses of plant phenology and distribution data from Kibale reveal strong interspecific variation in the timing and spatial patterning of leaf and fruit production. To obtain more information about this variability, we are integrating drone imagery and machine-learning classifications with long-term phenological and nutritional datasets to build dynamic, high-resolution food-resource landscapes for Kibale National Park. We will use these landscapes to quantify the spatiotemporal distribution of plant foods (e.g., seasonality, predictability, clumpedness) and to test research hypotheses about the behavior and life-histories of primates and other animal in Kibale.

For additional habitats, we aim to develop scalable, satellite-based methods to estimate canopy structure and validate them against the Kibale resource maps. Where local phenology datasets exist at other sites, we will integrate those datasets. For sites without such datasets, we will estimate fruit and leaf production from satellite time series calibrated with Kibale-based models. The outputs will be site-level estimates of clumpedness, predictability, and seasonality for key food resources.

Contact Information

Urs Kalbitzer

Climate Dynamics

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Description and Project Aims

Kibale National Park is a globally important 795 km² forest, but its common description as a “moist evergreen forest” masks critical ecological complexity. The park spans a significant altitudinal range (1100-1600m) and, more importantly, a steep north-to-south aridity gradient. While the northern sector is characterized by a wet, humid climate, the park’s southern region becomes progressively drier, eventually transitioning into the savanna-grassland ecosystem of Queen Elizabeth National Park. This environmental continuum is a key driver of biodiversity and ecosystem function, yet it remains poorly mapped.
Effective, spatially-aware conservation and ecological research depend on an accurate understanding of this environmental heterogeneity. Treating the park as a uniform habitat block can lead to flawed models of species distribution, poor predictions of climate change impacts, and inefficient allocation of conservation resources. The central aim of this long-term project is to create the first high-resolution, data-driven map of Kibale’s diverse climatic zones. Our lab is tackling this by fusing two powerful data sources:
Ground-Based Network: We have deployed a network of in-situ weather stations along the park’s primary gradients to capture fine-scale, real-time data on temperature, rainfall, and humidity.
Remote Sensing: We are augmenting this ground data with satellite-derived products, such as Land Surface Temperature (LST) and vegetation indices, which provide comprehensive spatial coverage across the entire park.
By using the ground station data to calibrate and validate the satellite imagery, we can build a robust model of the park’s microclimates. This foundational dataset will be a powerful tool, enabling our lab and our partners to more accurately model habitat suitability for key species, predict how different zones will respond to climate change, and ultimately guide more effective, site-specific conservation strategies.

Contact Information

Dipto Sarkar

Socio-Ecological Dynamics and the Human Dimensions of Conservation

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Description and Project Aims

The success of any global biodiversity plan is ultimately decided at the local level. While national parks like Kibale are critical for preserving ecosystems, their very existence creates a complex socio-economic landscape for the “frontline” communities living on their borders. The costs of protecting biodiversity often fall disproportionately on these local populations, who frequently face a cascade of challenges:

Livelihood Impacts: Restrictions on accessing traditional forest resources.
Direct Conflict: Significant crop and property damage from wildlife, as well as threats to human safety.
Health & Security: Heightened exposure to zoonotic disease transmission at the human-wildlife interface.
Economic Disparity: Limited development opportunities that can be overshadowed by the conservation-focused economy.

Recognizing that conservation cannot succeed if it ignores these human dimensions, our lab maintains a long-term socio-ecological monitoring program around Kibale National Park. This is not a one-time study but an ongoing commitment to understanding the real-world, lived experience of conservation.

The core aim of this project is to track and contextualize how conservation strategies impact community well-being over time. We employ a multi-faceted approach to build a holistic picture:

Community-Level Monitoring: We conduct regular, structured household surveys to gather longitudinal data on livelihoods, food security, economic well-being, health, and local perceptions of conservation and its managing bodies.
Policy Analysis: We actively track and analyze policy changes at all scales—from local park management rules and national-level government directives (e.g., from the Uganda Wildlife Authority) to the influence of international conservation frameworks.

By connecting these “bottom-up” community realities with “top-down” policy decisions, our research provides critical feedback to both scientists and policymakers. This work helps identify pathways for more equitable conservation, ensuring that the human communities who are the primary stewards of these landscapes are not left bearing the cost of global biodiversity goals.

Contact Information

Dipto Sarkar

Disease Ecology

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Description and Project Aims

Animals evolved into a world dominated by microbes. Animals maintain relationships with many of these microorganisms, but in some cases they can have a detrimental impact on an animal’s fitness. Our rapidly changing world is creating new interactions between species, including with humans, and creates new opportunities for transmission and the ecology of pathogens. Indeed, most emerging pathogens in human’s and their livestock have their origins in wildlife, and understanding what factors increase the risk of spillover into humans is an essential component of improving prevention efforts. This project aims to provide data towards understanding the ecology of pathogens in their natural hosts, in their rapidly changing natural ecosystems, and ultimately to understand changing human contact to wildlife. We broadly apply an evolutionary community ecology framework for this work and collaborate closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

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environmental DNA

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Description and Aims

The emerging field of eDNA targets the traces animals leave in the environment and leverages high-throughput sequencing technologies to generate sequence information about hosts and microbes at local scales. The eDNA toolkit we employ has already revealed insights about species distributions and unknown trophic links between species and has the potential to contribute to biodiversity monitoring efforts and disease ecology. We are excited about building capacities in Uganda to deploy these tools, again working closely with the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

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Forest Ecology and Restoration

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Aim

We have been studying the dynamics of the tree community in Kibale for over 35 years by monitoring 50 plots ever 3-5 years. This has provided key insights into the functioning of the forest and is now allowing us to restore areas of forest that were degraded by logging or agricultural encroachment before Kibale became a park. We work with the community to remove invasive or hyper-aggressive species and plant in native seedlings grown in nurseries.

Contact Information

Colin Chapman and Dipto Sarkar

Human-Wildlife Interactions

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Description and Aims

Human-wildlife conflict is one of the most pressing and complex challenges at the intersection of conservation biology and sustainable development. As human populations and agricultural lands expand into areas bordering protected habitats, interactions between people and wildlife are intensifying, often with severe consequences. Our research program addresses one of the most critical forms of this challenge: human-elephant conflict (HEC). Across Africa and Asia, crop-raiding by elephants poses a direct threat to the food security, economic stability, and safety of rural communities, which in turn can erode local support for conservation and lead to retaliatory killings of elephants.

The core aim of this long-term research is to move beyond simply documenting conflict to systematically understanding its underlying drivers. We operate on the premise that conflict events are not random; they are predictable behaviors shaped by a complex interplay of elephant ecology, animal learning, resource availability, and the structure of human landscapes. Our lab uses an interdisciplinary approach that integrates advanced geospatial science—including satellite remote sensing, GIS modeling, and spatial statistics—with rich, long-term datasets gathered through on-the-ground behavioral observations and collaboration with local community partners.

This project seeks to answer the fundamental questions of why and where conflict hotspots emerge and persist. We investigate how elephant decision-making is influenced by factors like landscape connectivity, the distribution and nutritional quality of preferred crops, the presence and effectiveness of physical barriers, and seasonal environmental changes. By identifying the specific landscape features and social-ecological dynamics that either attract elephants or fail to deter them, we can pinpoint critical vulnerabilities and opportunities for intervention.

Ultimately, the objective of this program is to provide the actionable, evidence-based science needed for effective, spatially-informed coexistence strategies. Rather than promoting one-size-fits-all solutions, our research helps conservation managers and local communities allocate limited resources to the right places. This can inform the design of smarter, more efficient mitigation tools, from the strategic reinforcement of barrier systems and the implementation of community-based early-warning systems in high-risk corridors, to informing land-use planning that better balances agricultural needs with wildlife movement. Our work strives to find sustainable pathways that protect human livelihoods while securing a future for elephant populations in increasingly human-dominated landscapes.

Contact Information

Dipto Sarkar

Primate and Mammal Population Dynamics.

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Description and Aims

The vast majority of conservation projects do not measure how they improve biodiversity. We want Kibale to be different. Thus, we are monitoring the relative abundance of the common diurnal primates, ungulates, and elephants throughout the park. Some of our monitoring builds on the work of others and starts in 1970 making our data some of the longest in existence for tropical systems. Park wide animal populations are generally increasing – a very positive message for conservation.

Contact Information

Colin Chapman, Dipto Sarkar, Jan Gogarten, Patrick Omeja, Urs Kalbitzer

Primate Ecology and Behavior

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Project Desciption and Aims

Nonhuman primates’ social and dietary diversity make them ideal for testing socioecological hypotheses. Kibale National Park is exceptional in this regard, with 13 primate species spanning diverse diets, group sizes and dynamics, social structures, mating systems, movement patterns, and other behavioral dimensions. Within this context, we investigate the causes and consequences of behavioral variation, with an emphasis on the folivorous Ugandan red colobus (Piliocolobus tephrosceles).

Current projects, drawing on more than a decade of data, examine context-dependent dietary preferences (using tree phenology and distribution), social relationships, and ranging. Ongoing work integrates high-resolution food-resource maps with behavioral observations and GPS-collar data to link food distribution to social dynamics, activity budgets, and movement.

Contact Information

Urs Kalbitzer, Colin Chapman, Martin Golooba