Flashing lights to deter small stock depredation in communal farmlands of Namibia

Verschueren, Stijn; Torres-Uribe, Carolina; Briers‐Louw, Willem D.; Fleury, Gabriela; Cristescu, Bogdan; Marker, Laurie

doi:10.52201/cej18vqfl3817

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…Examples of initiatives to decrease the costs of living with wildlife -and therefore to decrease the likelihood of engaging in IWT -included the introduction of livestock guarding dogs with financial support and training on their care and the provision of veterinary support and vaccinations (Gonzaĺez et al, 2012;Kebede et al, 2016;Marker et al, 2021). Similar initiatives under this category to help mitigate human-wildlife conflicts included livestock protection collars (McManus et al, 2015), and predator control lights to mimic human activity and act as a visual repellent for livestock depredation (Verschueren et al, 2019). Other repellents, such as fire, noise and chemicals, and irritating smells were also used in efforts to mitigate conflict with felids (Kebede et al, 2016;Megaze et al, 2017).…”

Section: Decreasing the Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cool cats and communities: Exploring the challenges and successes of community-based approaches to protecting felids from the illegal wildlife trade

Green

Anagnostou

Harris

et al. 2023

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Implementing community-based approaches to countering illegal wildlife trade is important to not only improve the effectiveness of strategies to protect wildlife, but also to promote equity and justice. We conducted an international exploratory review of interventions that aim to address the illegal trade in wildlife using a variety of community-based approaches. We focused our study on Felidae species in particular, as they factor centrally in the illegal wildlife trade, and have received significant conservation attention due to many being charismatic species. We searched for case studies that have been or are currently being implemented, and that were published between 2012-2022 in scholarly or grey literature databases. We extracted data on 40 case studies across 34 countries, including information on the approaches used, successes, challenges, and recommendations using a Theory of Change framework for community action on illegal wildlife trade. Initiatives to protect Felidae species from illegal trade could consider using multi-pronged approaches, consider historically underrepresented groups within communities - including women - in their design, and should evaluate the social and ecological outcomes to improve future efforts.

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Section: Decreasing the Costsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cool cats and communities: Exploring the challenges and successes of community-based approaches to protecting felids from the illegal wildlife trade

Green

Anagnostou

Harris

et al. 2023

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Bear deterrence with scare devices, a non‐lethal tool in the use‐of‐force continuum

Sarmento

2024

J Wildl Manag

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Wild animals eating agricultural products and coming close to people's residences are primary causes of human–wildlife conflict worldwide. When carnivores eat anthropogenic foods and cause human safety concerns, it often results in the removal of the animals and public demand for reduced wildlife populations. The use of remote methods, such as scare devices, to deter carnivores has been touted in the literature; however, efficacy evidence remains thin. I test the efficacy of a widely available motion‐activated solar alarm lamp to deter grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) from farms in Montana, USA. When scare devices were activated, there was a 46% reduction in the odds bears would access an attractant. For every additional scare device, there was an additional 44% reduction in the odds of a bear getting the food. Additionally, scare devices caused bears to be more vigilant and increase movement behavior. More bears in a group led to loss of deterrence efficacy, and there was no evidence for habituation to the aversive stimuli. This deterrence method was most effective in August and for fungicide‐treated wheat. Out of 21 farms, scare devices stopped bears from returning to 11 sites. Overall, scare devices can be a cheap and easy first step to preventing, or resolving, some grizzly bear issues in the use‐of‐force continuum, which hierarchically organizes conflict responses from non‐lethal to more severe.

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Relative abundance of a mesocarnivore in a human-dominated, semi-arid rangeland in Namibia

Reasoner,

Marker,

Verschueren

et al. 2024

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Mesocarnivores fill important roles in ecological communities globally, but their distribution and abundance are often understudied. Many species have historically been regarded as vermin and subject to lethal control due to their role in livestock predation. Identifying the factors influencing mesocarnivore populations can help disentangle their relationship within ecological communities and inform conflict mitigation and conservation priorities. To help identify these factors, we used camera traps to study the community of medium and large mammals in four communal conservancies of northeastern Namibia covering the wet and dry seasons using 99 and 97 camera trap stations, respectively. We modelled black-backed jackal (Lupulella mesomelas) abundance using the robust Royle-Nichols model. Black-backed jackal were widespread, with a mean per site abundance of 2.01 (SD=0.66) in the wet season and 2.41 (SD=0.49) in the dry season. Black-backed jackal showed seasonally contrasting covariate associations, with lower abundance in areas with medium and large-sized wild prey during the wet season, and higher abundance in areas with more villages and close to African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) dens in the dry season. We identified localized hotspots of black-backed jackal abundance during the dry season, which may indicate that when resources are scarce, black-backed jackals rely on anthropogenic food sources despite an elevated risk for conflict, and on carcass remains from African wild dog kills. These findings highlight potential drivers of mesocarnivore abundance that would be obscured in a conventional occurrence modelling framework, and illustrate how local abundance may be influenced by seasonal variability, wild and anthropogenic food sources, and a likely facilitative relationship with a large carnivore. Further investigations in areas with more complex carnivore guilds and higher density of dominant predators are needed to understand black-backed jackal-African wild dog interactions and impacts on population dynamics.

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Flashing lights to deter small stock depredation in communal farmlands of Namibia

Abstract: Flashing lights can work as an effective visual deterrent to protect livestock in kraals at night against wild carnivores.

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Cool cats and communities: Exploring the challenges and successes of community-based approaches to protecting felids from the illegal wildlife trade

Cool cats and communities: Exploring the challenges and successes of community-based approaches to protecting felids from the illegal wildlife trade

Bear deterrence with scare devices, a non‐lethal tool in the use‐of‐force continuum

Relative abundance of a mesocarnivore in a human-dominated, semi-arid rangeland in Namibia

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