Conserving large mammals

Macdonald, David W.; Boitani, Luigi; Dinerstein, Eric; Fritz, Hervé; Wrangham, Richard W.

doi:10.1002/9781118520178.ch16

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 217 publications

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“…The conservation of large mammals requires the protection of vast areas to maintain viable populations (Macdonald et al, 2013). This is often neither feasible, nor desirable, given trade-offs between land sparing and other factors, particularly the livelihoods of human populations (Fischer et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partial migration links local surface-water management to large-scale elephant conservation in the world's largest transfrontier conservation area

Tshipa

Valls‐Fox

Fritz

et al. 2017

Biological Conservation

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Successful conservation of large mammals requires vast areas to maintain viable populations. This often requires to embrace large-scale approaches that extend beyond the borders of formally protected areas. However, the quality of the scientific knowledge about animal movement across large conservation areas vary, and could limit the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Here we used GPS tracking to conduct the first study of large-scale movements of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Hwange NP (Zimbabwe), which is an unfenced park part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, the world's largest terrestrial conservation area. We show that some, but not all, elephants migrate seasonally, with wet- to dry-season movements linked to the provision of water in Hwange NP. The distance between the most distant locations of individual elephants reaches 260 km. In this partial migration system influenced by management practices, over 20% of the elephants have wet-season ranges established in Botswana, outside of protected areas in private or communal wildlife management areas. Our results call for the urgent drafting of a regional action plan, involving all stakeholders identified by our study and their neighbours, to predict and react to what would happen if water provision in Hwange NP was to suddenly change because of management practices or extreme climate change. Beyond this critical conservation issue for the world's largest elephant meta-population, our results also highlight the relevance of large-scale conservation areas combined with integrative planning involving national wildlife management institutions and the private and communal sector. (Résumé d'auteur

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partial migration links local surface-water management to large-scale elephant conservation in the world's largest transfrontier conservation area

Tshipa

Valls‐Fox

Fritz

et al. 2017

Biological Conservation

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“…Furthermore, the results that we present here should not be particularly surprising. Educational and career training systems are increasingly specialized and tend not to incentivize the development of broad interdisciplinary expertise (Dickman, 2010;Macdonald et al, 2013). This point presents the context for the relatively low levels of interdisciplinarity that we detected within human-lion conflict research and further emphasizes the need for robust interdisciplinary collaboration.…”

Section: Little Evidence Of Interdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 87%

“…These potential shortcomings however, are not exclusively attributable to lion biologists, zoologists, or ecologists. Lion researchers have made efforts to incorporate experts from the social sciences for many years (see Macdonald et al, 2007) and have, at times, found it challenging to get meaningful collaboration from social scientists and humanities experts (Macdonald et al, 2010(Macdonald et al, , 2013. Thus, the burden of proof in interdisciplinary research falls upon the co-authors from each of the representative disciplinary domains (Campbell, 2005).…”

Section: Little Evidence Of Interdisciplinaritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Evident Interdisciplinarity Among Prides of Lion Researchers

et al. 2018

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“…Although these non-protected areas harbour significant mammalian biodiversity (Dorji et al, 2019;Harihar, 2011;Punjabi and Rao, 2017) and act as important corridor habitats for freeranging animals (Neelakantan et al, 2019;Sunderraj et al, 1995), they are often overexploited (land conversion, grazing, unregulated poaching and hunting practices etc.) (Macdonald et al, 2013;Ripple et al, 2015Ripple et al, , 2014 and experience strong human-wildlife conflict (crop raiding, damage to infrastructures and injuries to humans) (Gubbi et al, 2014;Kissui, 2008). Conservation of such large herbivores in these non-protected areas is dependent on accurate information on distribution, habitat status and other biological parameters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of endemic northern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii) distribution and identification of priority conservation areas through modeling and field surveys across north India

Paul

Sarkar

Patil

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Recent declines in large herbivores have led to significant conservation efforts globally. However, the niche-specific megaherbivores residing outside protected areas face more imminent extinction threats. Swamp deer, the obligate grassland-dwelling endemic cervid is the most extinction-prone megaherbivore in the Indian subcontinent. Limited information on distribution and habitat status pose significant conservation and management challenges for the remaining fragmented populations in north, north-east and central India. To this end, we combined exhaustive field surveys and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) modeling to generate the most detailed distribution map for the northern swamp deer subspecies. We used primary data from more than 6000 km2 field surveys and eight ecologically relevant covariates for model predictions. Grassland cover, annual mean temperature and distance from water were the major factors that predicted the species distribution. Models predicted swamp deer distribution in only ~3% of the entire landscape, covering both protected (~1.4%) as well as non-protected (~1.6%) areas. Our validation surveys in some of these predicted areas confirmed swamp deer presence and indicated ~85% model accuracy. Finally, we identified four ‘Priority Conservation Area’ still retaining adequate grassland habitat and species presence that require immediate attention to ensure population connectivity across this landscape. These results highlight the importance of the marginalized grassland ecosystems of northern India that still retains high biodiversity. We suggest a swamp deer-centric conservation approach to protect these human-dominated habitats and emphasize in generating such information for other endemic, habitat-specialist species across the globe.

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Conserving large mammals

Cited by 23 publications

References 217 publications

Partial migration links local surface-water management to large-scale elephant conservation in the world's largest transfrontier conservation area

Partial migration links local surface-water management to large-scale elephant conservation in the world's largest transfrontier conservation area

Examining Evident Interdisciplinarity Among Prides of Lion Researchers

Assessment of endemic northern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii) distribution and identification of priority conservation areas through modeling and field surveys across north India

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