This research on chimpanzees was carried out in the Protected Areas of Southern Burundi, namely the Vyanda Reserve and the Protected Landscapes of Mukungu/Rukambasi and Mabanda/Nyanza-Lac in the Rukonwe and Rubungu/Kigabwe areas. This research was carried out as part of an internship carried out by Armandine Michels, a student at the Haute Ecole Provinciale du Hainaut (HEPH) -Condorcet in Belgium, ^3rd Bachelor, Agronomy Section, Environmental Focus under the supervision of Mr. Benoît NZIGIDAHERA, Head of Biodiversity Research at the National Institute for Environment and Nature Conservation (INECN) and Ms. Anne FOURBISSEUR Professor at the Heph-Condorcet.

To achieve the expected results, several methods were used, including the direct observation of chimpanzee populations, the monitoring of transects in forest galleries, the monitoring of chimpanzee trails, surveys of local populations etc. The main elements taken into consideration during the study include the types of threats to ecosystems, the presence of chimpanzees, their nesting, the remains of their food, their excrement and the possibilities. links between sites.

The field work covered a total of 60 ha divided into the various protected areas, 30 for the Vyanda Nature Reserve, 25 for the Mukungu/Rukambasi Protected Landscape and 5 for the Mabanda/Nyanza-Lac Protected Landscape, Rukonwe area. The preliminary results of this study show that despite the significant threats (42% of observations) there is still a fairly large population of chimpanzees in the Protected Areas of Southern Burundi.

The official count has yet to be done, but so far, the Bururi and Vyanda Nature Reserves and the Makamba Protected Landscapes would house between 70 and 90 chimpanzees. These populations remain in a few forest galleries for the Vyanda Nature Reserve, in the open forests with a steep slope for the Mukungu/Rukambasi Protected Landscape (due to the total absence of forest galleries) and in a single valley (housing forest galleries and open forest) in the Rukonwe zone.