Paul Schuette

Developing fencing policies for dryland ecosystems

In dryland ecosystems, mobility is essential for both wildlife and people to access unpredictable and spatially heterogeneous resources, particularly in the face of climate change. Fences can prevent connectivity vital for this mobility. There are recent calls for large-scale barrier fencing interventions to address human–wildlife conflict and illegal resource extraction. Fencing has costs and benefits to people and wildlife. However, the evidence available for facilitating sound decision-making for fencing initiatives is limited, particularly for drylands. We identify six research areas that are key to informing evaluations of fencing initiatives: economics, edge permeability, reserve design, connectivity, ecosystem services and communities. Policy implications. Implementing this research agenda to evaluate fencing interventions in dryland ecosystems will enable better management and policy decisions. The United Nations Conventions on Migratory Species (CMS) and to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) are appropriate international agreements for moving this agenda forward and leading the development of policies and guidelines on fencing in drylands.

Glucocorticoid stress responses of lions in relationship to group composition, human land use, and proximity to people

Large carnivores are in global decline, particularly outside of government protected areas such as national parks. Much is known about the ecology of lions in protected areas, but little is known about situations in which lions coexist with people and livestock. In the Olkiramatian and Shompole area of Kenyas South Rift, lions move among areas with different land uses to avoid direct interactions with people and livestock. When the separation between lions and people is low, lions mount strong glucocorticoid stress responses. These results confirm that access to areas with low disturbance and little interaction with people is important for the conservation of lions outside of national parks.

Questionable policy for large carnivore hunting

U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data

Effects of a protection gradient on carnivore density and survival: an example with leopards in the Luangwa valley, Zambia

Abstract Human activities on the periphery of protected areas can limit carnivore populations, but measurements of the strength of such effects are limited, largely due to difficulties of obtaining precise data on population density and survival. We measured how density and survival rates of a previously unstudied leopard population varied across a gradient of protection and evaluated which anthropogenic activities accounted for observed patterns. Insights into this generalists response to human encroachment are likely to identify limiting factors for other sympatric carnivore species. Motion‐sensitive cameras were deployed systematically in adjacent, similarly sized, and ecologically similar study areas inside and outside Zambias South Luangwa National Park (SLNP) from 2012 to 2014. The sites differed primarily in the degree of human impacts: SLNP is strictly protected, but the adjacent area was subject to human encroachment and bushmeat poaching throughout the study, and trophy hunting of leopards prior to 2012. We used photographic capture histories with robust design capture–recapture models to estimate population size and sex‐specific survival rates for the two areas. Leopard density within SLNP was 67% greater than in the adjacent area, but annual survival rates and sex ratios did not detectably differ between the sites. Prior research indicated that wire‐snare occurrence was 5.2 times greater in the areas adjacent to the park. These results suggest that the low density of leopards on the periphery of SLNP is better explained by prey depletion, rather than by direct anthropogenic mortality. Long‐term spatial data from concurrent lion studies suggested that interspecific competition did not produce the observed patterns. Large carnivore populations are often limited by human activities, but science‐based management policies depend on methods to rigorously and quantitatively assess threats to populations of concern. Using noninvasive robust design capture–recapture methods, we systematically assessed leopard density and survival across a protection gradient and identified bushmeat poaching as the likely limiting factor. This approach is of broad value to evaluate the impacts of anthropogenic activities on carnivore populations that are distributed across gradients of protection.

Ungulate distributions in a rangeland with competitors, predators and pastoralists

Summary African rangelands support diverse ungulate communities whose member species exhibit unique combinations of body morphology and behaviour that have evolved over millions of years to limit the effects of competition and predation on fitness, and more recently, to cope with people and livestock. The mechanisms by which native ungulates cope with the combined effects of competition, predation and human disturbance are poorly understood. Addressing this knowledge gap will help guide management and conservation plans for large mammal communities outside of strictly protected areas. We conducted animal counts on line transects and used a spatially explicit distance sampling model to test the influence of bottom–up effects (vegetation), top–down effects from African lion Panthera leo and spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta and human disturbance (livestock density, occupied human settlements) on native ungulate densities and distributions across a multiple-use rangeland in Kenya. We examined five species that varied in body morphology and foraging strategy, including two large-bodied grazers (zebra Equus quagga; wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus), two medium-bodied, mixed-feeders (Grants gazelle Nanger granti; impala Aepyceros melampus) and one very large-bodied browser (giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi). Densities and distributions of all species varied across available land-use types, with bottom–up effects (vegetation) and human disturbance having the strongest overall effects. Responses varied by ungulate foraging strategy. Distributions of grazers and the browser (giraffe) changed seasonally, while distributions of mixed-feeders and a grazer (zebra) changed diurnally. At broad spatial scales, ungulates did not respond to long-term variation in predation risk though they have been shown to respond behaviourally to short-term variation in risk. Synthesis and applications. Our results revealed that native ungulates in this multiple-use rangeland occur at densities comparable to many flagship protected area populations. We attribute observed densities to spatial heterogeneity across this landscape that included variation in human land use (community conservation area, seasonal settlements and livestock grazing, permanent settlements) and vegetation (grassland, bushland, woodland) that changed through time (seasonally, diurnally). This variation allowed ungulates to carve out ecological niches while reducing exposure to the potential limiting effects of competition and human disturbance. For some species, securing access to forage resources and avoiding human disturbance may be associated with costs through increased risk of predation. Our research reveals the trade-offs native ungulates make to cope with changes in forage availability, human disturbance and predation risk, providing important insights to help guide native ungulate conservation efforts in multiple-use rangelands.

Questionable policy for large carnivore hunting: U.S. Wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data

U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data

Changes in African large carnivore diets over the past half‐century reveal the loss of large prey

1Conservation Biology and Ecology Program, Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 2Zambian Carnivore Programme, Mfuwe, Zambia 3Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Umeå, Sweden 4Alaska Center for Conservation Science, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska 5Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Aiken Center, Burlington, Vermont

Foraging investment in a long-lived herbivore and vulnerability to coursing and stalking predators

Abstract Allocating resources to growth and reproduction requires grazers to invest time in foraging, but foraging promotes dental senescence and constrains expression of proactive antipredator behaviors such as vigilance. We explored the relationship between carnivore prey selection and prey foraging effort using incisors collected from the kills of coursing and stalking carnivores. We predicted that prey investing less effort in foraging would be killed more frequently by coursers, predators that often exploit physical deficiencies. However, such prey could expect delayed dental senescence. We predicted that individuals investing more effort in foraging would be killed more frequently by stalkers, predators that often exploit behavioral vulnerabilities. Further these prey could expect earlier dental senescence. We tested these predictions by comparing variation in age‐corrected tooth wear, a proxy of cumulative foraging effort, in adult (3.4–11.9 years) wildebeest killed by coursing and stalking carnivores. Predator type was a strong predictor of age‐corrected tooth wear within each gender. We found greater foraging effort and earlier expected dental senescence, equivalent to 2.6 additional years of foraging, in female wildebeest killed by stalkers than in females killed by coursers. However, male wildebeest showed the opposite pattern with the equivalent of 2.4 years of additional tooth wear in males killed by coursers as compared to those killed by stalkers. Sex‐specific variation in the effects of foraging effort on vulnerability was unexpected and suggests that behavioral and physical aspects of vulnerability may not be subject to the same selective pressures across genders in multipredator landscapes.

CONSERVATION POLICY. Questionable policy for large carnivore hunting.

U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data U.S. wolf-hunting policies do not align with ecological theory or data