Spatial Distribution of Leopards on Farmland and Namaqua National Park, South Africa

Leopards living at the farmland‐protected area interface prefer wild prey but consume high biomass of livestock

“…Livestock might be easier to capture than wild prey, due to poor antipredator response of domestic animals compared with their wild counterparts (Dwyer, 2008;Flörcke & Grandin, 2013); but see Laporte et al (2010). Leopards range widely in semi-arid and arid ecosystems (Mann et al, 2020), and in our study system they move across park boundaries (Cristescu et al, 2020). When on farms, the likelihood of leopards encountering livestock is probably substantial due to their abundance and visibility.…”

“…Transects were conducted on foot to supplement opportunistic scat collection, which occurred throughout the study area on and off roads. Transect locations were selected along randomly chosen park roads and on farms that were monitored in a broader predator ecology study in the region (Cristescu et al, 2020; de Satgé et al, 2017; Jansen et al, 2019).…”

Movement Choices of Persecuted Caracals on Farmlands in South Africa

“…The small carnivore guild consists of African wild cat (Felis silvestris lybica), grey mongoose (Galerella pulverulenta), yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata), bat-eared fox (Otocyon megalotis), Cape fox (Vulpes chama), common genet (Genetta genetta) and striped polecat (Ictonyx striatus) ( Jansen 2016 ;de Satgé et al 2017 ). Leopard is the only remaining large carnivore in the region, while mesopredators include caracal, black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) and honey badger (Mellivora capensis) ( Jansen 2016 ;Cristescu et al 2020 ).…”