The impacts, characterisation and management of human–leopard conflict in a multi-use land system in South Africa

Abstract

Human-carnivore conflict represents a global problem, negatively impacting carnivore populations and local livelihoods worldwide. Game farming in South Africa has increased introducing a new form of conflict due to predation on game, but is poorly understood. We contribute to this deficit by adopting an interdisciplinary research approach bringing together quantitative and qualitative data with longitudinal engagement with farmers. We assess the impacts, characteristics and management of human-leopard conflict on game and livestock in the Blouberg Mountain Range. Leopards represented 89 % of reported game attacks with the highest number of attacks on impala and 60 % of reported livestock attacks. The economic costs of leopard predation were highest for nyala compared to other game species and the financial cattle and donkey losses represented large economic costs for communal farmers compared to commercial farmers. Both farming communities experienced a reduced sense of wellbeing and for communal farmers, negative spiritual and cultural impacts. The spatial predation risk of game attacks were most affected by increasing distance to water and the risk of predation on livestock attacks increased further away from villages. Livestock attacks were associated with seasonal grazing patterns and the erosion of traditional management livestock strategies due to the economic costs of their implementation and the migrant labour system altering management roles in the community. The timing of game attacks by leopards was related to the birthing seasons for game and seasonal changes in water supply. Similarly, temporal patterns on livestock were related to the calving season and land degradation in communal areas.

Patterns of livestock depredation and cost‐effectiveness of fortified livestock enclosures in northern Tanzania

“…When carnivores kill livestock, people frequently retaliate against carnivores perceived to be responsible for the losses (Barlow, Greenwood, Ahmad, & Smith, 2010;Kissui, 2008), thus threatening the persistence of carnivore populations (Patterson, Kasiki, Selempo, & Kays, 2004;Woodroffe & Ginsberg, 1998). At the same time, livestock depredation strongly affects the quality of peoples' livelihoods (Constant, Bell, & Hill, 2015;Eshete et al, 2017;Mkonyi, Estes, Msuha, Lichtenfeld, & Durant, 2017). Therefore, mitigating these conflicts is an essential carnivore conservation goal, particularly in human-dominated landscapes to promote human-carnivore coexistence.…”

African wolf diet, predation on livestock and conflict in the Guassa mountains of Ethiopia

“…Understanding patterns of diet selection and the levels of perceived and actual livestock predation is thus important to developing effective conservation management plans and designing appropriate measures to reduce livestock loss (Sekhar, 1998;Ogada et al, 2003;Wang & Macdonald, 2006;Constant et al, 2015;Chase Grey et al, in review). This is particularly important for species where little other information exists on their status and conservation.…”

My cattle and your park: codesigning a role-playing game with rural communities to promote multistakeholder dialogue at the edge of protected areas

“…However, like any other efforts to protect the environment, they are often associated with conflicts between local actors (Wittmer et al 2006), including illegal hunting (Rowcliffe et al 2004), human-wildlife conflicts (Dublin and Hoare 2004, Guerbois et al 2012, Dickman et al 2014, Lyamuya et al 2014, Chitakira et al 2015, Constant et al 2015, Matema and Andersson 2015, coercion and violence toward local populations (Duffy 2014), and the symmetrical, sometimes violent, protest of local populations to conservation policies (Newmark and Hough 2000, Orlove 2002, Stern 2008. Protests are fueled by past and present social violence experienced by people living on the edges of protected areas.…”