Abstract
AbstractWith human influences driving populations of apex predators into decline, more information is required on how factors affect species at national and global scales. However, camera-trap studies are seldom executed at a broad spatial scale. We demonstrate how uniting fine-scale studies and utilizing camera-trap data of non-target species is an effective approach for broadscale assessments through a case study of the brown hyaenaParahyaena brunnea. We collated camera-trap data from 25 protected and unprotected sites across South Africa into the largest detection/non-detection dataset collected on the brown hyaena, and investigated the influence of biological and anthropogenic factors on brown hyaena occupancy. Spatial autocorrelation had a significant effect on the data, and was corrected using a Bayesian Gibbs sampler. We show that brown hyaena occupancy is driven by specific co-occurring apex predator species and human disturbance. The relative abundance of spotted hyaenasCrocuta crocutaand people on foot had a negative effect on brown hyaena occupancy, whereas the relative abundance of leopardsPanthera pardusand vehicles had a positive influence. We estimated that brown hyaenas occur across 66% of the surveyed camera-trap station sites. Occupancy varied geographically, with lower estimates in eastern and southern South Africa. Our findings suggest that brown hyaena conservation is dependent upon a multi-species approach focussed on implementing conservation policies that better facilitate coexistence between people and hyaenas. We also validate the conservation value of pooling fine-scale datasets and utilizing bycatch data to examine species trends at broad spatial scales.
Highlights
Carnivore species across the globe are in decline (Ripple et al, )
Determining which factors influence species occupancy is vital for conservation, but this is often challenging for carnivores because of their secretive behaviour, nocturnal habits, low densities and broad spatial requirements that often extend beyond physical, administrative and political boundaries (Balme et al, ; Bischof et al, ; Chundawat et al, )
Our study used a detection/non-detection dataset to identify, with a high level of confidence, a suite of four biological and anthropogenic factors that influence brown hyaena occupancy at a national scale. These findings suggest that camera-trap data focused on one species can provide useful data to determine broadscale occupancy trends of other, non-target species, provided the species share habitats and have similar-scale home range sizes
Summary
Carnivore species across the globe are in decline (Ripple et al, ). Some smaller species are plentiful and adaptable, many larger carnivores are vulnerable to extinction as a result of their narrow geographical ranges, small and isolated populations, low genetic diversity, specialized niche requirements, large home ranges, and propensity to compete with humans for the apex of shared food webs (Gittleman et al, ; Sillero-Zubiri & Laurenson, ). Camera traps are an increasingly popular tool in carnivore research and management because they overcome many of these obstacles (McCallum, ). They are affordable, can be deployed over large areas, and are able to collect continuous data non-invasively on even the most cryptic species.
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