Effect of human nuisance on the social organisation of large mammals: group sizes and compositions of seven ungulate species in Lake Mburo National Park and the adjacent Ankole Ranching Scheme

Averbeck, Christiane; Plath, Martin; Wronski, Torsten; Apio, Ann

doi:10.2981/11-025

Cited by 17 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Among ungulates, group living is common and is hypothesized to provide benefits via reduction in predation pressure (Averbeck et al . ). In some cases, human hunting and habitat degradation have even resulted in increased group sizes, which is hypothesized to allow greater vigilance and predator avoidance (Averbeck et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Among ungulates, group living is common and is hypothesized to provide benefits via reduction in predation pressure (Averbeck et al 2012). In some cases, human hunting and habitat degradation have even resulted in increased group sizes, which is hypothesized to allow greater vigilance and predator avoidance (Averbeck et al 2012). It is possible, therefore, that extinction drivers might decrease total abundance of species by reducing the total number of groups, while maintaining the number of individuals per group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The path to host extinction can lead to loss of generalist parasites

Farrell

Stephens

Berrang‐Ford

et al. 2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary1. Host extinction can alter disease transmission dynamics, influence parasite extinction and ultimately change the nature of host-parasite systems. While theory predicts that single-host parasites are among the parasite species most susceptible to extinction following declines in their hosts, documented parasite extinctions are rare. 2. Using a comparative approach, we investigate how the richness of single-host and multihost parasites is influenced by extinction risk among ungulate and carnivore hosts. Host-parasite associations for free-living carnivores (order Carnivora) and terrestrial ungulates (orders Perissodactyla + Cetartiodactyla minus cetaceans) were merged with host trait data and IUCN Red List status to explore the distribution of single-host and multi-host parasites among threatened and non-threatened hosts. 3. We find that threatened ungulates harbour a higher proportion of single-host parasites compared to non-threatened ungulates, which is explained by decreases in the richness of multi-host parasites. However, among carnivores threat status is not a significant predictor of the proportion of single-host parasites, or the richness of single-host or multi-host parasites. 4. The loss of multi-host parasites from threatened ungulates may be explained by decreased cross-species contact as hosts decline and habitats become fragmented. Among carnivores, threat status may not be important in predicting patterns of parasite specificity because host decline results in equal losses of both single-host parasites and multi-host parasites through reduction in average population density and frequency of cross-species contact. 5. Our results contrast with current models of parasite coextinction and highlight the need for updated theories that are applicable across host groups and account for both inter-and intraspecific contact.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The path to host extinction can lead to loss of generalist parasites

Farrell

Stephens

Berrang‐Ford

et al. 2015

Journal of Animal Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Human activities in pastoralist communities contribute to the production and stability of the ecosystem, e.g., livestock grazing influences soil fertility [66], distribution and diversity of plants, maintains natural vegetation [67], captures carbon [68], reduces erosion, maintains soils, maintains the water holding capacity of the soil and provides habitat for wildlife [58,69,70]. Due to close links between pastoral communities, the ecosystems in which they live, and the animals they breed, pastoralism plays a significant role in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity [70,71,72]. Only in recent decades (i.e., since 1997) the Mutara rangelands faced dramatic land-use changes [47], mainly by dissecting the natural habitat with living fences to separate cattle from agricultural gardens and to secure landownership.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pastoralism versus Agriculturalism—How Do Altered Land-Use Forms Affect the Spread of Invasive Plants in the Degraded Mutara Rangelands of North-Eastern Rwanda?

Wronski

Bariyanga

Sun

et al. 2017

Plants

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) originates from tropical Central and South America and has become invasive in about 50 countries. It causes problems when invading rangelands due to its toxicity to livestock and its tendency to form dense, monotonous thickets. Its invasiveness can partly be explained by the high tannin content largely protecting the species from being browsed, its tolerance to a wide range of environmental conditions, as well as its general preference for anthropogenically disturbed habitats. The dispersal of L. camara is facilitated by birds and other animals consuming its drupes (endozoochory), and so both wild and domestic ungulates could contribute to its spread. In our study, we investigated the distribution of L. camara in the Mutara rangelands of north-eastern Rwanda, an area that faced dramatic landscape changes in recent decades. We assessed 23 ecological factors and factors related to land-use and conservation-political history. Major effects on the local abundance of L. camara were found in that the relative canopy cover of L. camara was negatively correlated with the occurrence of other shrubs (suggesting competition for space and nutrients), while encounter rates of houses, ‘living fences’ (Euphorbia tirucalli L.) and cattle tracks were positively correlated with L. camara cover. Hence, the spread of non-native L. camara in the Mutara rangelands appears to be linked to landscape alterations arising from the transformation of rangelands supporting traditional pastoralist communities to other agricultural land-use forms.

show abstract

“…The best‐fitting detection function was derived from a half‐normal key with transect effective strip width of 344.43 m. Since the numbers of urial observations on each transect were not sufficient to fit transect‐specific detection functions, the global detection probability estimate was also used for estimation of CD at transect level. We also used the cluster size (CS, individuals) to assess the effects of different variables on the urial demography (Manor & Saltz, ; Averbeck et al ., ). On each transect, we calculated the median of CS and its 95% confidence interval (CI) based on 2000 bootstrap replicates in Flocker 1.1 software (Reiczigel et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Human exploitation can alter density, demography, distribution and behaviour of ungulates (Hay et al ., ; Jachmann, ; Averbeck et al ., ) and also affects large carnivores, which are highly dependent on their prey (Kilgo, Labisky & Fritzen, ; Karanth et al ., ; Balme, Slotow & Hunter, ). Poaching is one of the most eminent threats to wildlife (Gavin, Solomon & Blank, ) and rigorous law enforcement is important in tackling poaching pressure (Rowcliffe, de Merode & Cowlishaw, ; Hilborn et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ranger stations on predator and prey distribution and abundance in anIranian steppe landscape

Ghoddousi

Hamidi

Soofi

et al. 2015

Animal Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ranger stations are essential to combat poaching in protected areas and the distance from ranger stations is sometimes used as a proxy for poaching levels and law enforcement intensity. However, the influence of the spatial distribution of ranger stations on wildlife abundance and population structure has rarely been investigated. We evaluated the abundance and distribution of urial sheep Ovis vignei and Persian leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor in the steppe of Golestan National Park in northeastern Iran. The spatial distribution of these species in regard to anthropogenic (distances to ranger stations, villages and park border) and environmental variables (distance to water resources, average slope and normalized difference vegetation index) was assessed using systematic line transect sampling (186 km) and camera trapping (1150 trap nights). The studied steppe area is divided into three management zones differing in the number of ranger stations and their position with respect to park boundaries. The results of multivariate analyses highlighted that the distance to ranger stations was negatively related to the size and density of urial clusters and the most important variable in explaining urial distribution. Moreover, the distance to park borders influenced urial cluster density. Leopard abundance was positively associated with urial density but was less affected by the other variables tested. We found urial densities in the three management zones to range from 0.15 ± se 0.09 individuals km −2 (zone with just one station outside the park) to 21.77 ± se 7.92 individuals km −2 (zone with three stations). Taking into account these results and historical data on ungulate abundance and distribution in these management zones, we conclude that law enforcement from ranger stations has shaped current patterns of ungulate distribution. These results confirm that a good coverage (both numbers and locations) of ranger stations is of central importance for the management of protected areas.

show abstract

Effect of human nuisance on the social organisation of large mammals: group sizes and compositions of seven ungulate species in Lake Mburo National Park and the adjacent Ankole Ranching Scheme

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

The path to host extinction can lead to loss of generalist parasites

The path to host extinction can lead to loss of generalist parasites

Pastoralism versus Agriculturalism—How Do Altered Land-Use Forms Affect the Spread of Invasive Plants in the Degraded Mutara Rangelands of North-Eastern Rwanda?

Effects of ranger stations on predator and prey distribution and abundance in anIranian steppe landscape

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About