Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve

The 'Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, whose site is historically known as Majang, is situated on the Mambilla Plateau in SE Nigeria, covering 46 km2. It can be reached on foot from Yelwa village past the Mayo Jigawal, from where it is less than half an hour’s walk to the upper edge of the forest. The altitude ranges from 1,400 metres (4,593 ft) up to 1,600 metres (5,249 ft).[1] Ngel Nyaki was formally gazetted a local authority Forest Reserve under Gashaka - Mambilla Native Authority Forest order of April 1969, but at present it is under the management of the Taraba State Government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), with the Nigerian Montane Forest Project (NMFP) as a project partner.

Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve
Majang Montane Forest Reserve (Nagombe, Joseph Titus (2018), "Ndola People and Region in African History", Legacy Perfect Digital Prints, Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria.
Location Nigeria
Nearest cityYelwa village
Coordinates7°05′N 11°04′E
Area46 km2
Established1969

In November 2014 a long term monitoring vegetation plot was established in the reserve, funded by Nigerian philanthropist Theophilus Danjuma and administered by the Nigerian Montane Forest Project. The research plot is part of the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) global network operated through the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.[2]

Vegetation
Panorama of the eastern edge of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve on the Mambilla Plateau, Taraba State, Nigeria

The reserve contains a stand of rare dry type montane to sub-montane forest and is the only forest of its type left on the heavily populated Mambilla plateau.[3] The forest is an isolated fragment of approximately 7.5 km2.[4] The forest is diverse in species composition, amongst the most floristically diverse montane–submontane forest stands in Nigeria,[5] and has many tall emergents (e.g. Pouteria altissima, locally exclusive to this forest).[1] Four tree species are Red Data listed (Entandrophragma angolense, Lovoa trichilioides, Millettia conraui, Pouteria altissima), and several, such as Anthonotha noldeae are new to West Africa and others new to Nigeria.[6] An illustrated checklist of the flora of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve has been created.[7]

Fauna

Ngel Nyaki is home to a population of the rare and endangered Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes subsp. ellioti. It is estimated that the chimpanzee population in the forest comprises a single interbreeding community of 11–13 adults.[4]

Other primates including putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans), mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona) and tantalus monkey (Chlorocebus tantalus) also inhabit the forest. Birds such as turacos, the Cameroon olive-pigeon (Columba sjostedti), double-toothed barbet (Lybius bidentatus) and green bulbul are common.[3]

Freshwater crayfish belonging to the genus Astacopsis are abundant in the forested streams.[8]

Ngel Nyaki has been classified as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International.[9] Species of interest include the IUCN vulnerable Bannerman's weaver (Ploceus bannermani) and the near threatened Crossley's ground-thrush (Zoothera crossleyi). 158 bird species were recorded on the Mambilla Plateau between 13 November – 22 December 2003 by Tony Disley, many of them were within Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve.[10]

References
  1. Birdlife International fact sheet
  2. http://www.afromontane.canterbury.ac.nz/plot/
  3. Nigerian Montane Forest Project website
  4. Josephine Beck and Hazel Chapman (2008). "A population estimate of the Endangered chimpanzee Pan troglodytes vellerosus in a Nigerian montane forest: implications for conservation". Oryx. 42 (5): 448–451. doi:10.1017/S0030605308001397.
  5. Dowsett-Lemaire, F (1989). "Physiography and vegetation of highland forests of eastern Nigeria". Tauraco Research Report. 1: 6–12.
  6. Chapman, J. D.; Chapman, H. M. (2001). The forest flora of Taraba and Adamawa States, Nigeria : an ecological account and plant species checklist. Christchurch: Univ. of Canterbury. ISBN 0-473-07419-2.
  7. An illustrated checklist of the flora of Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve
  8. Umar, Harding and Winterbourn, Danladi (November 2013). Freshwater Invertebrates of the Mambilla Plateau, Nigeria (PDF). Christchurch, New Zealand: School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-473-25490-2.
  9. BirdLife International. "Important Bird and Biodiversity Area factsheet: Ngel-Nyaki Forest Reserve". Birdlife International. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  10. Nigerian Montane Forest Project. "Checklist of Birds". Nigerian Montane Forest Project - Checklist of Birds. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
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