Abstract
BackgroundPoaching is a prominent source of ‘hidden hurdles’, cryptic impacts of human activities that may hinder the conservation of animal populations. Estimating poaching mortality is challenging, as the evidence for illegal killing is not outwardly obvious. Using resighting and recovery data collected on 141 marked red deer Cervus elaphus within the Stelvio National Park (central Italian Alps), we show how multievent models allow to assess the direct impacts of illegal harvesting on age- and sex-specific survival, accounting for uncertainty over mortality causes.ResultsMortality caused by poaching was consistently higher for males than for females in all age classes. In males, the probability of dying from poaching was higher for extreme age classes, while in females all age classes showed fairly similar values of poaching mortality. The strong bias in sex-specific poaching mortality was possibly due to trophy killing in adult males and ‘bushmeat-like’ killing for private or commercial gain in young males and in females.ConclusionsA robust assessment of age- and sex-specific prevalence of poaching in wildlife populations is pivotal when illegal killing is of conservation concern. This provides timely information on what segment of the population is most likely to be affected. Besides obvious demographic consequences on small populations, age- and sex-biased poaching prevalence may contrast with the need to maintain ecosystem complexity and may alter behavioral responses to human presence. The information provided by multievent models, whose flexibility makes them adaptable to many systems where individual-based data is part of population monitoring, offers a support to design appropriate strategies for the conservation of wildlife populations.
Highlights
Poaching is a prominent source of ‘hidden hurdles’, cryptic impacts of human activities that may hinder the conservation of animal populations
Models with constant recovery probabilities were selected in both sexes (Models 4F and 4 M, Table 1) whereas resighting probabilities showed temporal variation in females (Model 6F, Table 1) and varied depending on mark type in males (Model 7 M, Table 1)
The model with the lowest Akaike Information Criterion corrected for small samples (AICc) value indicated that poaching mortality was constant across all age classes (Model 10F, Table 1)
Summary
Poaching is a prominent source of ‘hidden hurdles’, cryptic impacts of human activities that may hinder the conservation of animal populations. Knowing the impacts of human activities on animal behavior [1], population structure [2] and, population dynamics, is pivotal to design management strategies for the conservation of wildlife populations [3]. Through this knowledge, conservation management aims to secure ecosystem complexity, while allowing for the sustainable use of wildlife – be it for consumptive or non-consumptive purposes. May have less predictable consequences, including for example the disruption of social structures and of mating system [11]. Poaching consequences may be relevant in species of less conservation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
