Camera traps capture images of buffalo in the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve after five years of monitoring.

Scientists have captured camera trap footage indicating the possible recovery of forest buffalo populations in the northern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo after a five-year search for the near locally extinct species without success.

At 5:35 a.m. on 24 May 2023, a heavily built forest buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus) with long, curved horns walked into the close frame of a camera trap set up by scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve.

The camera trap images lasted just 10 seconds, but they were the result of five years of work to assess and monitor land mammals present in the landscape. After capturing those 10 seconds of footage, the team of scientists returned to the relevant site and found footprints and tracks, suggesting the presence of four adult buffaloes and one younger one – a potential hotspot for buffaloes.

Read full story »