Comments on selected forest reserves visited in SW Ghana in 2008-2010: wildlife (especially birds) and conservation status Françoise Dowsett-Lemaire & Robert J. Dowsett A report prepared for the Wildlife Division, Forestry Commission, Accra, Ghana Dowsett-Lemaire Misc. Report 82 (20 11 ) Dowsett-Lemaire F. & Dowsett R.J. 2011. Comments on selected forest reserves vis ited in SW Ghana in 2008-2010: wildlife (especially birds) and conservation status Dowsett-Lemaire Misc. Rep. 82: 29 pp. E-mail :
[email protected] Birds of forest reserves in SW Ghana -1- Dowsett-Lemaire Misc. Rep. 82 (2011) Comments on selected forest reserves visited in SW Ghana in 2008-2010: wildlife (especially birds) and conservation status by Françoise Dowsett-Lemaire & Robert J. Dowsett Acknowledgements We are very grateful to staff of the Forestry Commission (Managers of District offices, range supervisors and others) who often went out of their way to help us with directions, personnel to guide us and other advice. INTRODUCTION All wildlife reserves in the south-west of Ghana (Ankasa, Kakum, Bia, Owabi, Bomfobiri and Boabeng-Fiema) and a few forest reserves with special wildlife value (Atewa Range, Cape Three Points, Krokosua and Ayum/Subim) were visited from December 2004 to February 2005 when we were contracted to the Wildlife Di vision (Dowsett-Lemaire & Dowsett 2005). In 2008 we started a project to study the ecology of birds and map their distribution in the whole of Ghana; in the forest zone we also paid attention to mammals and tried to as sess changes in conservation status of various reserves since the publication of Hawthorne & Abu-Juam (1995).