Evaluation of a conflict-related brown hyaena translocation in central Namibia

The distribution of the brown hyaena (Hyaena brunnea) in southern Africa overlaps widely with commercial livestock ranching.As a direct result,both perceived and confirmed conflict with farmers occurs and hyaenas are trapped for lethal control or translocation.We studied the outcomes of a conflict-related brown hyaena translocation in Central Namibia involving a subadult female – the first reported GPS-monitored translocation of this species. The animal was moved 63 km from the conflict site and after exploratory movements settled into a new home range incorporating resident conspecifics. The hyaena caused no further conflict and did not return home to its original capture site where livestock depredation ceased. The hyaena was killed in a road accident five months after release. We assess and review our results (and brown hyaena translocations in general) with respect to species ecology, previous translocations as well as monitoring data from resident conspecifics.We provide supporting information that individual hyaenas can be translocated successfully but emphasize that decisions need to be made case-specifically considering the age, sex and social status of the animals. We highlight the importance of brown hyaena sociality when considering translocation as a management tool.Chester Zoo, U.K., and Colchester Zoo, U.K., for funding the GPS satellite transponders. The Brown Hyena Research Project acknowledges support from Namdeb Diamond Corporation and Nedbank’s Go Green Fund.http://www.sawma.co.zaam201

Lions at the Gates: Trans-disciplinary Design of an Early Warning System to Improve Human-Lion Coexistence

Across Africa, lions (Panthera leo) are heavily persecuted in anthropogenic landscapes. Trans-disciplinary research and virtual boundaries (geofences) programmed into GPS-tracking transmitters offer new opportunities to improve coexistence. During a 24-month pilot study (2016–2018), we alerted communities about approaching lions, issuing 1,017 alerts to four villages and 19 cattle posts. Alerts reflected geofence breaches of nine lions (2,941 monitoring days) moving between Botswana's Okavango Delta and adjacent agro-pastoral communities. Daily alert system costs per lion were US$18.54, or$5,460.24 per GPS deployment (n = 13). Alert-responsive livestock owners mainly responded by night-kraaling of cattle (68.9%), significantly reducing their losses (by $124.61 annually), whereas losses of control group and non-responsive livestock owners remained high ($317.93 annually). Community satisfaction with alerts (91.8%) was higher than for compensation of losses (24.3%). Study lions spent 26.3% of time monitored in geofenced community areas, but accounted for 31.0% of conflict. Manual alert distribution proved challenging, static geofences did not appropriately reflect human safety or the environment's strong seasonality that influenced cattle predation risk, and tracking units with on-board alert functions often failed or under-recorded geofence breaches by 27.9%. These insufficiencies prompted the design of a versatile and autonomous lion alert platform with automated, dynamic geofencing. We co-designed this prototype platform with community input, thereby incorporating user feedback. We outline a flexible approach that recognizes conflict complexity and user community heterogeneity. Here, we describe the evolution of an innovative Information and Communication Technologies-based (ICT) alert system that enables instant data processing and community participation through interactive interfaces on different devices. We highlight the importance of a trans-disciplinary co-design and development process focussing on community engagement while synthesizing expertise from ethnography, ecology, and socio-informatics. We discuss the bio-geographic, social, and technological variables that influence alert system efficacy and outline opportunities for wider application in promoting coexistence and conservation

Spin structure of the nucleon: QCD evolution, lattice results and models

The question how the spin of the nucleon is distributed among its quark and gluon constituents is still a subject of intense investigations. Lattice QCD has progressed to provide information about spin fractions and orbital angular momentum contributions for up- and down-quarks in the proton, at a typical scale \mu^2~4 GeV^2. On the other hand, chiral quark models have traditionally been used for orientation at low momentum scales. In the comparison of such model calculations with experiment or lattice QCD, fixing the model scale and the treatment of scale evolution are essential. In this paper, we present a refined model calculation and a QCD evolution of lattice results up to next-to-next-to-leading order. We compare this approach with the Myhrer-Thomas scenario for resolving the proton spin puzzle.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, equation (9) has been corrected leading to a revised figure 1b. Revision matches published versio

Collaboration for conservation: assessing countrywide carnivore occupancy dynamics from sparse data

Aim: Assessing the distribution and persistence of species across their range is a crucial component of wildlife conservation. It demands data at adequate spatial scales and over extended periods of time, which may only be obtained through collaborative efforts, and the development of methods that integrate heterogeneous datasets. We aimed to combine existing data on large carnivores to evaluate population dynamics and improve knowledge on their distribution nationwide. Location: Botswana. Methods: Between 2010 and 2016, we collated data on African wild dog, cheetah, leopard, brown and spotted hyaena and lion gathered with different survey methods by independent researchers across Botswana. We used a multi-species, multi-method dynamic occupancy model to analyse factors influencing occupancy, persistence and colonization, while accounting for imperfect detection. Lastly, we used the gained knowledge to predict the probability of occurrence of each species countrywide. Results: Wildlife areas and communal rangelands had similar occupancy probabilities for most species. Large carnivore occupancy was low in commercial farming areas and where livestock density was high, except for brown hyaena. Lion occupancy was negatively associated with human density; lion and spotted hyaena occupancy was high where rainfall was high, while the opposite applied to brown hyaena. Lion and leopard occupancy remained constant countrywide over the study period. African wild dog and cheetah occupancy declined over time in the south and north, respectively, whereas both hyaena species expanded their ranges. Countrywide predictions identified the highest occupancy for leopards and lowest for the two hyaena species. Main Conclusions: We highlight the necessity of data sharing and propose a generalizable analytical method that addresses the challenges of heterogeneous data common in ecology. Our approach, which enables a comprehensive multi-species assessment at large spatial and temporal scales, supports the development of data-driven conservation guidelines and the implementation of evidence-based management strategies nationally and internationally

Resilience trinity: safeguarding ecosystem functioning and services across three different time horizons and decision contexts

Ensuring ecosystem resilience is an intuitive approach to safeguard the functioning of ecosystems and hence the future provisioning of ecosystem services (ES). However, resilience is a multi-faceted concept that is difficult to operationalize. Focusing on resilience mechanisms, such as diversity, network architectures or adaptive capacity, has recently been suggested as means to operationalize resilience. Still, the focus on mechanisms is not specific enough. We suggest a conceptual framework, resilience trinity, to facilitate management based on resilience mechanisms in three distinctive decision contexts and time-horizons: i) reactive, when there is an imminent threat to ES resilience and a high pressure to act, ii) adjustive, when the threat is known in general but there is still time to adapt management, and iii) provident, when time horizons are very long and the nature of the threats is uncertain, leading to a low willingness to act. Resilience has different interpretations and implications at these different time horizons, which also prevail in different disciplines. Social ecology, ecology, and engineering are often implicitly focussing on provident, adjustive, or reactive resilience, respectively, but these different notions and of resilience and their corresponding social, ecological, and economic trade-offs need to be reconciled. Otherwise, we keep risking unintended consequences of reactive actions, or shying away from provident action because of uncertainties that cannot be reduced. The suggested trinity of time horizons and their decision contexts could help ensuring that longer-term management actions are not missed while urgent threats to ES are given priority

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Financial Costs of Large Carnivore Translocations – Accounting for Conservation

<div><p>Human-carnivore conflict continues to present a major conservation challenge around the world. Translocation of large carnivores is widely implemented but remains strongly debated, in part because of a lack of cost transparency. We report detailed translocation costs for three large carnivore species in Namibia and across different translocation scenarios. We consider the effect of various parameters and factors on costs and translocation success. Total translocation cost for 30 individuals in 22 events was $80,681 (US Dollars). Median translocation cost per individual was$2,393, and $2,669 per event. Median cost per cheetah was$2,760 (<i>n</i> = 23), and $2,108 per leopard (<i>n</i> = 6). One hyaena was translocated at a cost of$1,672. Tracking technology was the single biggest cost element (56%), followed by captive holding and feeding. Soft releases, prolonged captivity and orphaned individuals also increased case-specific costs. A substantial proportion (65.4%) of the total translocation cost was successfully recovered from public interest groups. Less than half the translocations were confirmed successes (44.4%, 3 unknown) with a strong species bias. Four leopards (66.7%) were successfully translocated but only eight of the 20 cheetahs (40.0%) with known outcome met these strict criteria. None of the five habituated cheetahs was translocated successfully, nor was the hyaena. We introduce the concept of Individual Conservation Cost (ICC) and define it as the cost of one successfully translocated individual adjusted by costs of unsuccessful events of the same species. The median ICC for cheetah was $6,898 and$3,140 for leopard. Translocations are costly, but we demonstrate that they are not inherently more expensive than other strategies currently employed in non-lethal carnivore conflict management. We conclude that translocation should be one available option for conserving large carnivores, but needs to be critically evaluated on a case-by-case basis.</p></div

Collaboration for conservation: Assessing countrywide carnivore occupancy dynamics from sparse data

Aim Assessing the distribution and persistence of species across their range is a crucial component of wildlife conservation. It demands data at adequate spatial scales and over extended periods of time, which may only be obtained through collaborative efforts, and the development of methods that integrate heterogeneous datasets. We aimed to combine existing data on large carnivores to evaluate population dynamics and improve knowledge on their distribution nationwide. Location - Botswana. Methods Between 2010 and 2016, we collated data on African wild dog, cheetah, leopard, brown and spotted hyaena and lion gathered with different survey methods by independent researchers across Botswana. We used a multi-species, multi-method dynamic occupancy model to analyse factors influencing occupancy, persistence and colonization, while accounting for imperfect detection. Lastly, we used the gained knowledge to predict the probability of occurrence of each species countrywide. Results Wildlife areas and communal rangelands had similar occupancy probabilities for most species. Large carnivore occupancy was low in commercial farming areas and where livestock density was high, except for brown hyaena. Lion occupancy was negatively associated with human density; lion and spotted hyaena occupancy was high where rainfall was high, while the opposite applied to brown hyaena. Lion and leopard occupancy remained constant countrywide over the study period. African wild dog and cheetah occupancy declined over time in the south and north, respectively, whereas both hyaena species expanded their ranges. Countrywide predictions identified the highest occupancy for leopards and lowest for the two hyaena species. Main Conclusions We highlight the necessity of data sharing and propose a generalizable analytical method that addresses the challenges of heterogeneous data common in ecology. Our approach, which enables a comprehensive multi-species assessment at large spatial and temporal scales, supports the development of data-driven conservation guidelines and the implementation of evidence-based management strategies nationally and internationally

Analysis of large carnivore translocation costs.

<p>Panel A displays the distribution of total cost by category (black bars), demonstrating the impact of tracking technology (grey bars). Panel B compares cost and the amount recuperated from public interest groups in each category.</p

Success rates and costs of large carnivore translocations in USD, including estimated Individual Conservation Cost (ICC) for each category.

<p>A – Total cost for translocation study by category. B – Total cost without post-release tracking technology and expenses. *Individuals with unknown translocation outcome (<i>n</i> = 3) were removed from success rate calculations. An Individual Conservation Cost (ICC) is defined as the successful translocation in each category and accounts for failed attempts. Cost per ICC was estimated as the median cost/translocation success in each category, except for events because cheetah group releases resulted in both successful and unsuccessful translocations.</p