Human-elephant conflict in areas adjacent to the Tsavo National Parks, Kenya

This thesis investigates the issue of human-elephant conflict in the Tsavo ecosystem, which has the largest single population of elephants in Kenya. In the Tsavo ecosystem elephants that move out of the Tsavo National Parks became 'problem elephants' as they damage crops, kill people and threaten human life. In addition the presence of elephants in settled areas causes fear and insecurity. Many factors determined the intensity of human-elephant conflict in Tsavo, but five of these were the most significant. These were human population density, percentage of land under cultivation, type of land ownership, fencing and the type of natural vegetation. Conflict was highest on private ownership small holdings with permanent water and wooded bushland type of natural vegetation

Fencing Africa's protected areas : costs, benefits, and management issues

The fencing of protected areas (PAs) is highly controversial, and much remains unknown about the associated financial, ecological, and social impacts. We surveyed experts on 63 fenced and 121 unfenced PAs across 23 African countries to assess the advantages and drawbacks of fencing. Where fences exist, they are largely supported and widely viewed as effective at demarcating PA boundaries and mitigating human-wildlife conflicts. However, most fences were insufficiently funded, which limited their ability to contain conflict-prone species like elephants and lions. Fences were also frequently vandalised and caused numerous conflicts with local communities. We documented for the first time the distribution of and support for fencing in PAs across Africa. While fencing is largely limited to Southern Africa and East Africa, support for fencing is greatest in West Africa and is associated with high human and livestock densities, and high threats from bushmeat harvesting, livestock encroachment, and logging.JRBM was supported in part by Panthera and National Science Foundation Coupled Human and Natural Systems Grant 115057.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon2020-01-01hj2019Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

Spatial patterns of large African cats : a large-scale study on density, home range size, and home range overlap of lions Panthera leo and leopards Panthera pardus

Spatial patterns of and competition for resources by territorial carnivores are typically explained by two hypotheses: 1) the territorial defence hypothesis and 2) the searching efficiency hypothesis. According to the territorial defence hypothesis, when food resources are abundant, carnivore densities will be high and home ranges small. In addition, carnivores can maximise their necessary energy intake with minimal territorial defence. At medium resource levels, larger ranges will be needed, and it will become more economically beneficial to defend resources against a lower density of competitors. At low resource levels, carnivore densities will be low and home ranges large, but resources will be too scarce to make it beneficial to defend such large territories. Thus, home range overlap will be minimal at intermediate carnivore densities. According to the searching efficiency hypothesis, there is a cost to knowing a home range. Larger areas are harder to learn and easier to forget, so carnivores constantly need to keep their cognitive map updated by regularly revisiting parts of their home ranges. Consequently, when resources are scarce, carnivores require larger home ranges to acquire sufficient food. These larger home ranges lead to more overlap among individuals' ranges, so that overlap in home ranges is largest when food availability is the lowest. Since conspecific density is low when food availability is low, this hypothesis predicts that overlap is largest when densities are the lowest. We measured home range overlap and used a novel method to compare intraspecific home range overlaps for lions Panthera leo (n = 149) and leopards Panthera pardus (n = 111) in Africa. We estimated home range sizes from telemetry location data and gathered carnivore density data from the literature. Our results did not support the territorial defence hypothesis for either species. Lion prides increased their home range overlap at conspecific lower densities whereas leopards did not. Lion pride changes in overlap were primarily due to increases in group size at lower densities. By contrast, the unique dispersal strategies of leopards led to reduced overlap at lower densities. However, when human-caused mortality was higher, leopards increased their home range overlap. Although lions and leopards are territorial, their territorial behaviour was less important than the acquisition of food in determining their space use. Such information is crucial for the future conservation of these two iconic African carnivores