Abstract
Hunting bags provide important information for conservation measures and wildlife management. This study is to assess relationships between landscape structure and game species. The community parameters (abundance, richness and diversity) and landscape/land use indices have been related, using GIS and statistical analysis, in the South-East of Spain (Marina Baja, Alicante). Game species richness (S) is determined by the presence of fruit groves (p = 0.001, R = 0.714) and landscape shape. The total density of species (TD) is influenced positively by fruit groves (p = 0.001, R = 0.783) and wooded shrublands (p = 0.002, R = 0.911), but is influenced negatively by urban areas (p < 0.001, R = 0.844). Small game communities correlate to irrigated fruit (p = 0.002, R = 0.754) and dry vineyard (p = 0.021, R = 0.839) and also with the diversity landscape index (p = 0.029, R = 0.708). Big game density is positively related to holm oak (p = 0.018, R = 0.812) and dense pine forests (p = 0.001, R = 0.849) and also with the total area landscape index (p = 0.011, R = 0.921). Population control species prefer irrigated fruit (p < 0.001, R = 0.775), fruit groves (p < 0.001, R = 0.857) and irrigated vineyard (p = 0.017, R = 0.833) land uses. Our conclusion is that most game species presents a positive relation with landscape structure, such as fractal dimension and shape index, and traditional agriculture based on irrigated and dry fruit crops.
Highlights
Hunting constitutes an important traditional economic activity in Spain
Each type of game area works independently, presenting particular problems and concrete responses to these problems in order to improve management tasks. They are characterised by different landscape structures and small game species present spatial distributions based on land use patches (Jiménez-García et al, 2006)
The relationship between game species and landscape structure is frequently used in biological conservation
Summary
Hunting constitutes an important traditional economic activity in Spain. Each type of game area works independently, presenting particular problems and concrete responses to these problems in order to improve management tasks. They are characterised by different landscape structures and small game species present spatial distributions based on land use patches (Jiménez-García et al, 2006). Habitat fragmentation is a consequence of landscape change and strongly influences species survival, in the case of area-sensitive species. The availability of habitat patches is affected by fragmentation processes (Fahrig, 2003), that will lead to low dispersal capacity and to the loss of local populations (McGarigal et al, 2002)
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