The hunter and the hunted: Using web‐sourced imagery to monitor leopard (<i>Panthera pardus pardus</i>) trophy hunting

Muller, Jessica R.; Selier, Jeanetta; Drouilly, Marine; Broadfield, Joleen; Leighton, Gabriella R. M.; Amar, Arjun; Naude, Vincent N.

doi:10.1111/csp2.12789

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Trophy hunting of large carnivores has the potential to generate significant financial returns for conservation (Lindsey et al, 2007, 2012), while poorly managed hunting may drive population declines and ultimately imperil both the industry and the conservation revenue it provides (Loveridge et al, 2007; Muller et al, 2022; Packer et al, 2011). Leopards are particularly sensitive to over‐harvest due to their complex social systems and reliance on relatively stable kin‐clustering (Fattebert et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic pressure limits the recovery of a postwar leopard population in central Mozambique

Briers‐Louw,

Kendon,

Rogan

et al. 2024

Conservat Sci and Prac

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The population size and conservation status of wildlife in post‐conflict areas is often uncertain. In Mozambique, decades of armed conflict resulted in large‐scale wildlife population depletion with limited conservation and research opportunities. The African leopard (Panthera pardus) is a large carnivore with great ecological and economic significance, yet their population status is largely unknown within Mozambique. Using camera trapping in conjunction with robust spatially explicit capture‐recapture modeling, we estimated leopard density in 2021 for Coutada 11, a wildlife management area in the postwar Zambezi Delta landscape of central Mozambique. Leopard density was relatively low (1.57 ± 0.37 SE [latent‐mixture‐model] and 1.84 ± 0.41 [sex‐mixture‐model] leopards/100 km2), occurring in the bottom fourth of 161 range‐wide leopard densities, and similar to those from semiarid and human‐dominated landscapes. Prey‐based carrying capacity estimates suggested that leopard density should be at least twice as large. Despite a recent and substantial reduction in poaching activity, evidence of snared leopards indicates that sustained bushmeat poaching, combined with sustainable, but additional legal offtake is suppressing leopard population recovery. This study provides important baseline insight into leopard population density in Mozambique and joins mounting evidence indicating that anthropogenic pressures limit large carnivore populations which is of major national and global concern. We suggest long‐term monitoring of this leopard population to determine trends over time and implement effective conservation interventions in response to population changes. This population clearly has the capacity to recover if hunting quotas are reduced to account for illegal offtake and, more importantly, if anti‐poaching efforts are redoubled to reduce unsustainable anthropogenic mortality of leopards.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic pressure limits the recovery of a postwar leopard population in central Mozambique

Briers‐Louw,

Kendon,

Rogan

et al. 2024

Conservat Sci and Prac

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“…The role of open-source intelligence and citizen science data has expanded in ornithology and continues to increase in popularity due to the relative ease of accessing data, large sample sizes and increasing quality of available metadata. Continued availability of open-source intelligence and citizen science data provides a wealth of information on predator diets [ 27 – 29 , 70 , 76 ], interspecific interactions [ 30 ], polymorphism [ 77 , 78 ], conservation policy and planning [ 79 ], species range shifts [ 80 ], and has the potential to benefit ongoing and future raptor research across large spatial-, demographic- and temporal-scales.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continental scale dietary patterns in a New World raptor using web-sourced photographs

Panter,

Naude,

Barbar

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Dietary studies are essential to better understand raptor ecology and resource requirements through time and space, informing species habitat use, interspecific interactions and demographic rates. Methods used to collect data on raptor diets can constrain how dietary analyses can be interpreted. Traditional approaches to study raptor diets, such as analysis of pellets or prey remains, often provide dietary data at the local population level and tend to be restricted to pairs during the breeding season. The increasing use of citizen science data has the potential to provide dietary inferences at larger spatial, demographic and temporal scales. Using web-sourced photography, we explore continental-scale demographic and latitudinal dietary patterns between adult and non-adult Crested Caracaras (Caracara plancus), throughout the species’ range across the Americas. We analysed 1,555 photographs of caracaras feeding and found no age effects on the probabilities of different food groups being included in photographs. The probability of reptiles being included in photographs of caracaras from the northern population was significantly higher than those from the southern population, with the opposite pattern for birds. There were significant latitudinal effects with the probabilities of fishes and invertebrates in the diet of northern caracaras increasing towards the equator. Contrastingly, the probability of mammals in the diet increased away from the equator for both populations. Assuming the focal species is well-sampled, web-sourced photography can improve our understanding of raptor diets at large-scales and complements more traditional approaches. This approach is more accessible to raptor researchers without access to the field or expertise in physical prey identification techniques.

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“…Similarly, Panter & Amar [ 21 ] used web-sourced photographs to explore sex- and age-related diet differences in Eurasian sparrowhawks across the UK. Berryman & Kirwan [ 37 ] looked at the diet of tiny hawks ( Accipiter superciliosus ) using web-sourced photographs, and a more recent study used web-sourced imagery to contribute to conservation and law enforcement policies [ 38 ]. Except for human time, analysing web-sourced photographs requires relatively minimal skill other than knowledge of visual characteristics of predators (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using web-sourced photographs to examine temporal patterns in sex-specific diet of a highly sexually dimorphic raptor

Panter

Amar

2022

R. Soc. open sci.

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Traditional methods to study raptor diet are usually limited temporally, e.g. prey remains at nesting sites, and are unsuitable to examine dietary changes throughout the year. Using web-sourced photography, we explore temporal patterns in prey size and key prey species between sexes of the sexually dimorphic Eurasian sparrowhawk ( Accipiter nisus ) throughout the United Kingdom. We examined 666 photographs of sparrowhawk on prey and identified the prey species involved, together with sparrowhawk sex. Changes in prey size and proportions of key prey species over time (seasonally and monthly) were explored for each sex. Prey weight was substantially higher for females than males. However, on average, prey size for both sexes declined during the summer period (May–June) being the lowest in June, which is the main nestling-rearing month for both sparrowhawks and their prey. Compared with summer, rock doves ( Columba livia ) were more important prey for female sparrowhawk in winter. Whereas, for males, Eurasian blackbirds ( Turdus merula ) were more important in spring compared with autumn. Web-sourced photography can overcome several limitations of previous methods used to study raptor diet including the ability to quantify diet between the sexes throughout the entire year, however, may also introduce a prey-size bias toward larger prey items.

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The hunter and the hunted: Using web‐sourced imagery to monitor leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) trophy hunting

Cited by 3 publications

References 66 publications

Anthropogenic pressure limits the recovery of a postwar leopard population in central Mozambique

Anthropogenic pressure limits the recovery of a postwar leopard population in central Mozambique

Continental scale dietary patterns in a New World raptor using web-sourced photographs

Using web-sourced photographs to examine temporal patterns in sex-specific diet of a highly sexually dimorphic raptor

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