Cooperative breeding shapes post-fledging survival in an Afrotropical forest bird

For avian group living to be evolutionary stable, multiple fitness benefits are expected. Yet, the difficulty of tracking fledglings, and thus estimating their survival rates, limits our knowledge on how such benefits may manifest postfledging. We radio-tagged breeding females of the Afrotropical cooperatively breeding Placid greenbul (Phyllastrephus placidus) during nesting. Tracking these females after fledging permitted us to locate juvenile birds, their parents, and any helpers present and to build individual fledgling resighting datasets without incurring mortality costs or causing premature fledging due to handling or transmitter effects. A Bayesian framework was used to infer age-specific mortality rates in relation to group size, fledging date, maternal condition, and nestling condition. Postfledging survival was positively related to group size, with fledglings raised in groups with four helpers showing nearly 30% higher survival until independence compared with pair-only offspring, independent of fledging date, maternal condition or nestling condition. Our results demonstrate the importance of studying the early dependency period just after fledging when assessing presumed benefits of cooperative breeding. While studying small, mobile organisms after they leave the nest remains highly challenging, we argue that the telemetric approach proposed here may be a broadly applicable method to obtain unbiased estimates of postfledging survival

Complex ways in which landscape conditions and risks affect human attitudes towards wildlife

Negative interactions between humans and wildlife (i.e. those presenting risks to human security or private property) can trigger retaliation and potential human-wildlife conflict (HWC). The nature and strength of these human responses may depend on previous interactions with wildlife and can be shaped by landscape conditions. However, the ways in which previous experiences and landscape conditions interact to shape peoples’ attitudes towards wildlife are not well-understood. We conducted our study in Tsavo Conservation Area, Kenya, which experiences some of the highest rates of HWC documented in East Africa. We explored how previous experiences with wildlife and landscape conditions interact to inform the attitudes of people towards wildlife. We conducted semi-structured surveys among 331 households and fit an ordinal mixed-effects regression model to predict human attitudes to wildlife as a function of landscape conditions and previous interactions. Respondents indicated that baboons, elephants, and lions posed the greatest risks to human security and private property. Households experiencing risks from wildlife wanted wildlife populations to decrease, whereas households depending on grazing lands outside the study area wished to see wildlife increase. Our study demonstrates that human-wildlife interactions have important social and spatial contexts, and are not uniform across households in the same area owing to location of private property. Correspondingly, for interventions to be effective, we recommend considerations of local contexts and landscape conditions of communities.The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Leiden Conservation Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Network, African Wildlife Foundation, and National Geographic Society.https://www.conservationandsociety.org.inam2023Centre for Wildlife Managemen

Endemic forest birds of the Taita Hills

Despite intense publicity, habitat loss still remains a serious threat to biodiversity. Forest destruction is its frontrunner, both in terms of physical habitat under threat and potential for biodiversity loss. In the fragmented landscape of the Taita Hills, SE Kenya, several bird species are facing the threat of extinction from forest loss. They are absent from many of the remnant forest patches and/or are showing negative effects with increasing disturbance. Using a relatively common forest-dependent bird species - the whitestarred robin Pogonocichla stellata - as a model, the current status of this ecosystem was examined, and future patterns predicted in view of the unrelenting destruction. As expected, the robin population in the largest and most intact fragment (c35 ha) was the healthiest, suggesting that this was indeed the best quality habitat patch: it had the highest population density, highest productivity (low nest predation and high juvenile to adult ratio) and lowest turnover rates. Effects of forest deterioration were evident from the fact that the medium-sized patch (c95 ha), which is undergoing severe degradation, was a worse habitat for the robin than the tiny patches (c2-8 ha): it had the lowest population density, lowest productivity (highest nest predation rates and lowest juvenile to adult ratio), and highest turnover rates. The explanation for this is twofold. Besides the smallest patches facing lower levels of habitat loss recently, they also had high levels of dispersal between them. They occasionally operated as a finegrained system with individuals moving between them in the space of a few days. In general, the robin metapopulation is demographically (rate of change, λ = 0.996) and genetically (at migration- and mutation-drift equilibrium) stable at present. The populations in the largest and smallest patches were potential sources providing emigrants that were possibly crucial in sustaining the population in the medium-sized patch (given its low productivity and high turnover rates). Overall, these findings underscore the importance of within-patch processes, both for ensuring persistence of subpopulations and providing dispersers, as well as between-patch processes (chiefly dispersal) for ensuring metapopulation persistence. Thus, by furnishing ample sample sizes that enabled work to be carried out in all fragments throughout this landscape, the model species approach was useful for identifying the need for a two-pronged conservation strategy. First, a need to focus within fragments to reduce habitat loss and degradation, and second, to address among fragment issues relating to land-use and maintaining a forested landscape, in order to enhance connectivity between patches. Finally, based on the mechanisms by which disturbance and fragmentation are affecting bird populations e.g. predator influxes from the surrounding matrix, conservation recommendations for the Taita Hills are offered.</p

A Spanner in the Works: Human–Elephant Conflict Complicates the Food–Water–Energy Nexus in Drylands of Africa

The two major conservation issues for drylands of Africa are habitat loss or degradation and habitat fragmentation, largely from agriculture, charcoal production, and infrastructural development. A key question for management is how these landscapes can retain their critical ecological functions and services, while simultaneously supporting resilient livelihoods. It is a clear nexus question involving food (agriculture), water, and energy (fuelwood), which is complicated by human–wildlife conflicts. While these could appear disparate issues, they are closely connected in dryland forest landscapes of Africa where elephants occur close to areas of human habitation. For instance, crop failure, whether due to weather or wildlife damage, is a key driver for rural farmers seeking alternative livelihoods and incomes, one of the commonest being charcoal production. Similarly, heavy reliance on wood-based energy often leads to degradation of wildlife habitat, which heightens competition with wildlife for food and water, increasing the possibility of crop-raiding. So, for multifunctional landscapes where elephants occur in close proximity with humans, any food–water–energy nexus activities toward achieving sustainability and resilience should consider human–elephant conflicts (HECs). Here, we broach these food–water–energy nexus issues with a focus on dryland areas of Africa and HECs. We highlight an ongoing study attempting to address this nexus holistically by employing a climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and agro-forestry based design, augmented by an elephant deterrent study and an eco-charcoal production venture

Using scientific evidence to guide the conservation of a highly fragmented and threatened Afrotropical forest

Fragmentation of forests adversely affects forest-dependent biota, and conservation biologists strive to develop a good understanding of how species respond to changes associated with habitat attrition in order to establish the best conservation strategies. The spatial structure of populations persisting in fragmented landscapes governs their response to habitat fragmentation, and hence dictates the remedial actions that will be most effective for species and habitat conservation. The Taita Hills forests of Kenya are an example of a highly fragmented Afrotropical forest ecosystem embedded in a human-dominated landscape. The spatial structure of the white-starred robin Pogonocichla stellata populations living in indigenous forests across this landscape was examined. Due to its forest dependence and widespread occurrence, the robin was used as a model species to help formulate general conservation guidelines for forest-dependent species and their habitats within this landscape. Results from demographic, genetic and behavioural work point to a mixed spatial structure with elements of patchy population dynamics on a fine scale, and a core-satellite or source-pseudo-sink system on a broader scale. In particular, the findings underscore (1) the importance of dispersal, (2) the importance of small patches, (3) the importance of the largest patch, and (4) the processes underlying problems associated with forest disturbance. We examine the conservation implications of this information, and report on activities already initiated or planned, in line with these findings, for the Taita Hills

Globalization and Biodiversity Conservation Problems: Polycentric REDD+ Solutions

Protected areas are considered the cornerstone of biodiversity conservation, but face multiple problems in delivering this core objective. The growing trend of framing biodiversity and protected area values in terms of ecosystem services and human well-being may not always lead to biodiversity conservation. Although globalization is often spoken about in terms of its adverse effects to the environment and biodiversity, it also heralds unprecedented and previously inaccessible opportunities linked to ecosystem services. Biodiversity and related ecosystem services are amongst the common goods hardest hit by globalization. Yet, interconnectedness between people, institutions, and governments offers a great chance for globalization to play a role in ameliorating some of the negative impacts. Employing a polycentric governance approach to overcome the free-rider problem of unsustainable use of common goods, we argue here that REDD+, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate change mitigation scheme, could be harnessed to boost biodiversity conservation in the face of increasing globalization, both within classic and novel protected areas. We believe this offers a timely example of how an increasingly globalized world connects hitherto isolated peoples, with the ability to channel feelings and forces for biodiversity conservation. Through the global voluntary carbon market, REDD+ can enable and empower, on the one hand, rural communities in developing countries contribute to mitigation of a global problem, and on the other, individuals or societies in the West to help save species they may never see, yet feel emotionally connected to