scholarly journals Effects of human‐induced prey depletion on large carnivores in protected areas: Lessons from modeling tiger populations in stylized spatial scenarios

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 11298-11313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil H. Carter ◽  
Simon A. Levin ◽  
Volker Grimm
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Prey Depletion

scholarly journals Carnivore ecology and conservation : implications for tiger conservation and management in Nepal

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hemanta Kafley
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Prey Abundance ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Conservation Programs ◽  
Intraguild Interactions ◽  
Formidable Challenge ◽  
Tiger Conservation ◽  
Conservation And Management

In human-dominated landscapes, conservation and management of large carnivores has been a formidable challenge due to habitat fragmentation, degradation and loss, wildlife persecution, and poaching. Consequently, wide-ranging species like tigers are now relegated to small protected areas. I evaluated factors influencing occupancy of tiger at a fine spatial-scale, developed a novel model to estimate prey abundance, assessed intraguild interaction between tigers and leopards in response to prey and disturbance factors, and evaluated sustainable financing mechanisms for tiger conservation programs. The success of carnivore conservation relies on better understanding their habitat use and prey availability, the community structure of competing species, and the financial ability to sustain monitoring and conservation programs. I collected field data through camera trap survey in Chitwan National Park and found that tiger occurrence was influenced by fine-scale habitat factors including prey availability. I concluded that in small protected areas wide-ranging carnivores may persist at high population densities by intensively focusing their activity on small portions of their home ranges. Furthermore, prey abundance, key to carnivore persistence, can be reliably estimated from camera trapping data using binomial mixture models. Further, prey abundances in conjunction with human and livestock presence in the park modulate intraguild interactions between tigers and leopards. Collectively, these findings should provide useful information for biologists, conservationists, and managers on how to successfully conserve and manage large carnivores.

scholarly journals Ecological preferences of large carnivores in remote, high-altitude protected areas: insights from Buxa Tiger Reserve, India

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mriganka Shekhar Sarkar ◽  
Harika Segu ◽  
J. V. Bhaskar ◽  
Rajendra Jakher ◽  
Swati Mohapatra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Faecal Sample ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Panthera Tigris ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Tiger Reserve ◽  
Faecal Samples ◽  
Geographical Regions

AbstractDifficult terrain and inclement weather limit our knowledge of large predators, such as the tiger Panthera tigris, in the Himalayas. A lack of empirical data on large carnivores can lead to mismanagement of protected areas and population declines. We used non-invasive genetic and remote sensing data to inform the management of such high-altitude protected areas. We used the tiger as a focal species to investigate prey preference and habitat suitability in India's Buxa Tiger Reserve, which encompasses several eco-geographical regions in the Himalayan and subtropical zones. During 2010–2013, 909 faecal samples were collected, of which 372 were confirmed, using genetic analysis, to be of tiger origin. Fourteen prey species/groups were identified in 240 tiger faecal samples, largely dominated by goats Capra spp. (26.59%), rhesus macaques Macaca mulatta (22.22%) and cattle Bos spp. (20.63%). Considering only the wild prey species for which survey data are available, however, and frequency of occurrence of prey in faecal samples, hog deer Axis porcinus, sambar deer Rusa unicolor and spotted deer Axis axis were the most preferred prey species. Using faecal sample locations to examine the relationship between tiger presence and environmental features indicated that the niche for tigers is narrower than the available protected area: c. 62% of core protected area is suitable, of which only 17% is highly suitable for tigers. Tigers prefer dense vegetation, open forests, riverine vegetation and areas close to water sources. Faecal sample-based studies have the potential to generate data that can help us understand the ecology of elusive carnivore species inhabiting high-altitude landscapes.

scholarly journals Fear, human shields and the redistribution of prey and predators in protected areas

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 620-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Berger
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Species Distributions ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
Anthropogenic Effects ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Brown Bears ◽  
Human Presence ◽  
Landscape Use

Protected areas form crucial baselines to judge ecological change, yet areas of Africa, Asia and North America that retain large carnivores are under intense economic and political pressures to accommodate massive human visitation and attendant infrastructure. An unintended consequence is the strong modulation of the three-way interaction involving people, predators and prey, a dynamic that questions the extent to which animal distributions and interactions are independent of subtle human influences. Here, I capitalize on the remarkable 9-day synchronicity in which 90% of moose neonates in the Yellowstone Ecosystem are born, to demonstrate a substantive change in how prey avoid predators; birth sites shift away from traffic-averse brown bears and towards paved roads. The decade-long modification was associated with carnivore recolonization, but neither mothers in bear-free areas nor non-parous females altered patterns of landscape use. These findings offer rigorous support that mammals use humans to shield against carnivores and raise the possibility that redistribution has occurred in other mammalian taxa due to human presence in ways we have yet to anticipate. To interpret ecologically functioning systems within parks, we must now also account for indirect anthropogenic effects on species distributions and behaviour.

scholarly journals A culture of tolerance: coexisting with large carnivores in the Kafa Highlands, Ethiopia

Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 751-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fikirte Gebresenbet ◽  
Brhane Baraki ◽  
Gidey Yirga ◽  
Claudio Sillero-Zubiri ◽  
Hans Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Economic Impact ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Panthera Leo ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Panthera Pardus ◽  
Classical Economics ◽  
Group Interviews

AbstractWe assessed losses of livestock to lions Panthera leo and leopards Panthera pardus in the Adiyo and Gimbo districts in Kafa Biosphere Reserve, Ethiopia. We quantified the economic impact, conducted household and group interviews, and explored potential solutions with local people. During 2009–2013 there were 350 and 62 attacks by lions and leopards, respectively. Households that suffered attacks on their livestock lost a mean of USD 287 and USD 310 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Although lion attacks are more frequent than leopard attacks, our qualitative data indicate that tolerance for the former is higher because lions are more respected in the local culture. We describe how depredation is culturally mitigated and how retaliatory killing is avoided. Given people's tolerance towards them, carnivores may persist in their highland refugium, opening an arena for conservation that is not strictly linked to protected areas or to classical economics.

scholarly journals Rewilding the world's large carnivores

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 172235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wolf ◽  
William J. Ripple
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
World Region ◽  
Human Footprint ◽  
Carnivore Species ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Usa

Earth's terrestrial large carnivores form a highly endangered group of species with unique conservation challenges. The majority of these species have experienced major geographical range contractions, which puts many of them at high risk of extinction or of becoming ecologically ineffective. As a result of these range contractions and the associated loss of intact predator guilds, the ecological effects of these species are now far less widespread and common, with inevitable consequences for ecosystem function. Rewilding—which includes reintroducing species into portions of their former ranges—is an important carnivore conservation tool and means for restoring top-down ecological regulation. We conducted a global analysis of potential reintroduction areas. We first considered protected areas where one or more large carnivore species have been extirpated, identifying a total of 130 protected areas that may be most suitable for carnivore reintroduction. These protected areas include sites in every major world region, and are most commonly found in Mongolia ( n  = 13), Canada ( n  = 11), Thailand ( n  = 9), Namibia ( n  = 6), Indonesia ( n  = 6) and Australia ( n  = 6). We considered the sizes of protected areas, their levels of protection, the extent of human impacts within and around the protected areas, and the status of prey species in the protected areas. Finally, we used the ‘last of the wild’ approach to identify contiguous low human footprint regions within the former ranges of each species, identifying an additional 150 areas which could be the focus of conservation efforts to create conditions conducive to reintroductions. These low footprint regions were most commonly found in the USA ( n  = 14), Russia ( n  = 14), Canada ( n  = 10), China ( n  = 9) and Mauritania ( n  = 8). Together, our results show the global-scale potential for carnivore rewilding projects to both conserve these species and provide critical ecological and social benefits.

scholarly journals Density estimation of tiger and leopard using spatially explicit capture–recapture framework

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e10634
Author(s):  
Tahir Ali Rather ◽  
Sharad Kumar ◽  
Jamal Ahmad Khan
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Natural Vegetation ◽  
Camera Traps ◽  
Spatially Explicit ◽  
Panthera Tigris ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Road Density ◽  
Buffer Zones ◽  
Capture Recapture

The conservation of large carnivores often requires precise and accurate estimates of their populations. Being cryptic and occurring at low population densities, obtaining an unbiased population estimate is difficult in large carnivores. To overcome the uncertainties in the conventional capture–recapture (CR) methods used to estimate large carnivore densities, more robust methods such as spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) framework are now widely used. We modeled the CR data of tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) in the SECR framework with biotic and abiotic covariates likely believed to influence their densities. An effort of 2,211 trap nights resulted in the capture of 33 and 38 individual tigers and leopards. A total of 95 and 74 detections of tigers and leopards were achieved using 35 pairs of camera traps. Tiger and leopard density were estimated at 4.71 ± 1.20 (3.05–5.11) and 3.03 ± 0.78 (1.85–4.99) per 100 km2. Our results show that leopard density increased with high road density, high terrain ruggedness and habitats with high percentage of cropland and natural vegetation. The tiger density was positively influenced by the mosaic of cropland and natural vegetation. This study provides the first robust density estimates of tiger and leopard within the study area. Our results support the notion that large carnivores can attain moderate densities within human-dominated regions around protected areas relying on domestic livestock. Broader management strategies aimed at maintaining wild prey in the human-dominated areas around protected areas are necessary for large and endangered carnivores’ sustenance in the buffer zones around protected areas.

scholarly journals Prey depletion as a threat to the world's large carnivores

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 160252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wolf ◽  
William J. Ripple
Keyword(s):  
Prey Species ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Iucn Red List ◽  
Panthera Tigris ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Clouded Leopard ◽  
Cuon Alpinus ◽  
Large Carnivore ◽  
Carnivore Species ◽  
Prey Depletion

Large terrestrial carnivores are an ecologically important, charismatic and highly endangered group of species. Here, we assess the importance of prey depletion as a driver of large carnivore endangerment globally using lists of prey species for each large carnivore compiled from the literature. We consider spatial variation in prey endangerment, changes in endangerment over time and the causes of prey depletion, finding considerable evidence that loss of prey base is a major and wide-ranging threat among large carnivore species. In particular, the clouded leopard ( Neofelis nebulosa ), Sunda clouded leopard ( Neofelis diardi ), tiger ( Panthera tigris ), dhole ( Cuon alpinus ) and Ethiopian wolf ( Canis simensis ) all have at least 40% of their prey classified as threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and, along with the leopard ( Panethra pardus ), all of these species except the Ethiopian wolf have at least 50% of their prey classified as declining. Of the 494 prey species in our analysis, an average of just 6.9% of their ranges overlap protected areas. Together these results show the importance of a holistic approach to conservation that involves protecting both large carnivores directly and the prey upon which they depend.

scholarly journals Survival rates and causes of mortality of leopards Panthera pardus in southern Africa

Oryx ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourens H. Swanepoel ◽  
Michael J. Somers ◽  
Wouter van Hoven ◽  
Monika Schiess-Meier ◽  
Cailey Owen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Large Carnivores ◽  
Panthera Pardus ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Unpublished Studies ◽  
Causes Of Mortality ◽  
Small Sample Sizes

AbstractEstimation of survival rates is important for developing and evaluating conservation options for large carnivores. However, telemetry studies for large carnivores are often characterized by small sample sizes that limit meaningful conclusions. We used data from 10 published and 8 unpublished studies of leopards Panthera pardus in southern Africa to estimate survival rates and investigate causes of leopard mortality. Mean survival rates were significantly lower in non-protected (0.55 ± SE 0.08) compared to protected areas (0.88 ± 0.03). Inside protected areas juveniles had significantly lower survival (0.39 ± 0.10) compared to subadults (0.86 ± 0.07) and adults (0.88 ± 0.04). There was a greater difference in cause of death between protected and non-protected areas for females compared to males, with people being the dominant cause of mortality outside protected areas for both females and males. We suggest there is cause for concern regarding the sustainability of leopard populations in South Africa, as high female mortality may have severe demographic effects and a large proportion of suitable leopard habitat lies in non-protected areas. However, because a large proportion of deaths outside protected areas were attributed to deliberate killing by people, we suggest that management interventions may have the potential to increase leopard survival dramatically. We therefore stress the urgency to initiate actions, such as conflict mitigation programmes, to increase leopard survival in non-protected areas.

Effectiveness of Protected Areas in Conserving Large Carnivores in Europe

2016 ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Santini ◽  
L. Boitani ◽  
L. Maiorano ◽  
C. Rondinini
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Large Carnivores
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