Towards Understanding Large Mammal Population Declines in Africa's Protected Areas: A West-Central African Perspective

Abstract

A raft of recent studies has highlighted a major decline in large mammal populations in many of Africa's protected areas. A recent continent-wide assessment represented a major step forward also in terms of quantifying the decline on a regional basis, but fell short in its sampling and analysis. In this paper, a way out of the “black box” of large mammal declines in Africa's protected areas is formulated, with the aim of assisting in the preparation of further assessments in the future. First, large mammal assessments are categorized, highlighting the importance of using and sometimes juxtaposing peer-reviewed sources. The importance of the length of time series of large mammal counts is stressed, allowing one to distinguish between natural variation (especially rainfall) and human-induced changes. Setting reference dates, such as 1970, often gives biased results, showing the need to interpret large mammal population assessments in a historic context as well. This holds true particularly for West-Central Africa, which has experienced a considerable decline in rainfall since 1970. Building on a framework that connects herbivore physiology and behavior with environmental gradients, examples are given to explain some striking observed changes. The declines in Africa's protected areas are not limited to large mammals, but have also been observed for large birds of prey. Assessments of large mammal populations should be accompanied by the identification of proximate drivers of change, for which a framework is suggested in this paper. To conclude, some suggestions for countering the declines in large mammal populations are presented.

Herbivore Dynamics and Range Contraction in Kajiado County Kenya: Climate and Land Use Changes, Population Pressures, Governance, Policy and Human-wildlife Conflicts

“…Only the distribution of two wildlife species (zebra and ostrich) expanded in Kajiado between the 1970s and 2010s. The extreme declines and range contractions are similar to the patterns reported for the adjoining Mara region of Kenya , Tarangire-Simanjiro of Tanzania (Msoffe et al 2011) and elsewhere in Kenya ) and Africa (Craigie et al 2010, Scholte 2011. Similarly, dramatic levels of decline were also noted for the Athi-Kaputiei ecosystem (Ogutu et al 2013).…”

“…Studies of animal population dynamics are therefore crucial in helping identify underlying causes, detect patterns of conservation concern before they become too advanced, assess the effectiveness of management interventions and anticipate likely future population trajectories. In particular, wildlife populations are declining markedly throughout large parts of Africa (Ogutu & Owen-Smith 2003, Brashares et al 2004, Caro & Scholte 2007, Fischer & Linsenmair 2007, Scholte et al 2007, van Vliet et al 2007, Craig et al 2010, Scholte 2011. In East Africa, severe declines have been documented for vast areas of Tanzania (Stoner et al 2006(Stoner et al , 2007, including the Katavi-*Address correspondence to this author at the Institute for Crop Science-340, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;Tel: +49-711-459-23022;Fax: +49-711-459-24345;E-mail: jogutu2007@gmail.com Rukwa (Caro 2008) and the Tarangire-Simanjiro (Msoffe et al 2011) ecosystems.…”

The bushmeat trade in African savannas: Impacts, drivers, and possible solutions

“…Bushmeat hunting is generally less well addressed than other threats in protected areas (Bruner et al, 2001) and greatly elevated investment in anti-poaching is needed in many reserves (Scholte, 2011). There are several key steps that can be taken by governments to improve enforcement: a) Allocation of adequate funding.…”

“…Wildlife populations are declining in most African countries (Craigie et al, 2010;Scholte, 2011) and bushmeat hunting is a key contributor. In Kenya and Zambia, for example, bushmeat hunting has emerged as the primary threat to wildlife (Barnett, 2000;Okello and Kiringe, 2004).…”

Does trophy hunting remain a profitable business model for conserving biodiversity in Cameroon?

“…We are aware of only five hZ managers who have commissioned wildlife surveys of their respective zones, and not more than once since 2005. This lack of wildlife monitoring hides the decline in key animal populations (lion, elephant, buffalo, large antelopes) in many sport hunting zones (Croes et al 2011, Scholte 2011, with off-take quotas being based at best on guesswork, and at worst established to maximize tax revenue or to meet customers' requests (Lindsey et al 2007).…”