Small-scale comparisons help us to understand how habitat features and food availability impact primate abundance. This is particularly useful at sites without human impacts, as it allows for the investigation of the natural factors influencing nesting patterns and great ape abundance. We provide a small-scale study of sympatric great ape nests in an unlogged old-growth forest without poaching activities. We conducted a line transect survey (52 km total effort) around Mbeli Bai, a forest clearing in Nouabalé–Ndoki National Park, Congo, applying on-site nest decay rates and assigning nest builder using logistic regression. We found a high occurrence of monodominant Gilbertiodendron dewevrei at Mbeli Bai (34%) that correlates with low great ape densities at Mbeli Bai. Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) showed a preference for nesting in trees in closed canopy monodominant forest. We found a low percentage of gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) nests in mixed species forest (35%) and a higher percentage in trees (64%) compared to other study sites. However, generalized additive models found higher gorilla nest encounter rates in mixed species forest with dense understory than in monodominant forest and open understory. We found no indication of higher gorilla densities close to Mbeli Bai than elsewhere, and line transect estimates were lower than the number of gorillas revealed from direct observations. There were substantial differences between our findings and those for nearby sites, demonstrating the utility of small-scale comparisons to further understand the factors determining chimpanzee and gorilla densities within and between sites and the limitations of nest surveys.

小规模比较有助于我们了解栖息地特征和食物供应如何影响灵长类动物的丰度。这在没有人类影响的地点特别有用，因为它允许调查影响筑巢模式和类人猿丰度的自然因素。我们在没有偷猎活动的未采伐的古老森林中对同域巨猿巢进行了小规模研究。我们在刚果努瓦莱-恩多基国家公园的森林空地 Mbeli Bai 周围进行了线样线调查（总工作量 52 公里），应用现场巢穴衰减率并使用逻辑回归分配巢穴建造者。我们发现Mbeli Bai的单显性Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (34%)出现率很高，这与 Mbeli Bai 的低类人猿密度相关。黑猩猩（Pan troglodytes troglodytes ) 表现出偏好在封闭的冠层单优势林中的树木中筑巢。我们发现了低比例的大猩猩 ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla) 与其他研究地点相比，在混合物种森林 (35%) 中筑巢，在树木中筑巢 (64%) 的百分比更高。然而，广义加法模型发现，在林木茂密的混种森林中，大猩猩巢穴遭遇率高于单优势林和开阔林木。我们没有发现 Mbeli Bai 附近的大猩猩密度比其他地方高的迹象，并且线样断面估计值低于直接观察显示的大猩猩数量。我们的发现与附近站点的发现之间存在重大差异，这表明小规模比较有助于进一步了解决定站点内部和站点之间黑猩猩和大猩猩密度的因素以及巢穴调查的局限性。