However, when the team approached the centre of the Park, although the map showed that the habitat should be bush savannah, they found themselves walking through shady woodland.

Mixed in among this forest were dying individuals of typical savannah trees and bushes (such as Hymenocardia acida, Piliostigma thonningii, Bridelia ferruginea).

Older local people interviewed from the villages to the west of the Park remember the area from forty years ago as grassland and bush with gallery forests along the rivers.

In the last few decades, the railway line (CamRail) that connects Garoua to Yaoundé, which runs along the eastern side of the Park, has taken most of the freight and passengers away from this axis, and the young people who come from the villages that are along the old road are drifting to the cities.

There are no villages inside the Park, but it was known that there is some hunting, including larger animals such as African buffalo, waterbuck, and kob, often destined for the bushmeat markets of the distant cities.

As a precursor to management, the conservation potential of Mbam Djerem was assessed for large and small mammals, birds, habitats, and the degree of use by humans.

Ungulate diversity is high: apart from those mentioned above there are bongo and sitatunga (Tragelaphus euryceros and T. scriptus), several species of duiker (confirmed are blue, red-flanked, Grimm's, black-fronted).

The presence of at least ten species of primate, including chimpanzees Pan troglodytes has been confirmed by the study teams either by direct observation of animals or their signs or by hearing their vocalisations, and local hunters suggested there could be still more.

The first bird list for Mbam Djerem, a synthesis of the Fotso and Bobo/ Languy surveys, numbered 360 species, and, as for the mammal fauna, included both true savannah species such as brown-rumped bunting Emberiza affinis, black-bellied firefinch Lagonosticta rara, lesser blue-eared starling Lamprotornis chloropterus, white-collared starling Grafisia torquata, brubru Nilaus afer and yellow penduline tit Anthoscopus parvulus and true forest species such as some of the hornbills: black and white casqued hornbill Ceratogymna subcylindricus, black casqued hornbill Ceratogymna atrata, red-billed dwarf hornbill Tockus camurus, and passerines such as Bleda syndactyla, Bleda eximia, Alethe diademata, Stiphrornis erythrothorax Criniger Calurus, Indicator maculatus (Fotso 2000).

This seasonality has important implications for the animals that require frequent water: they are obliged to remain near the larger rivers for several months at a time.

It is clear that the Mbam Djerem National Park contains a representative bloc of the habitat diversity that comprises the ecotone area of Cameroon and its neighbours.