a b s t r a c tIllegal poaching threatens wildlife across Africa. Historically and even today, conservationists have lobbied local and national governments to create and better manage protected lands to reduce this threat. In many cases, however, governments are either unable or unwilling to invest further resources in exclusive protected areas, such as national parks. In addition to traditional methods, or where such approaches are not feasible, a complimentary form of protection is researcher presence, which has been described recently to deter wildlife poaching. We present data over four years that assesses the impact of researcher presence on wildlife and snare encounter rate in an unprotected area in western Tanzania, where there is a mid-term chimpanzee study ongoing. We systematically collected spatiotemporal presence data on the nine, most common mammal species in the study area, as well as all snares. Snare encounter rates increased with distance from researcher base station, whilst overall mammal encounter rates decreased. Further, mammal encounter rates have increased each year since the arrival and permanence of researchers in this remote area. Our findings have implications for the benefits of researcher presence, namely in deterring poaching, especially in unprotected areas with minimal governmental surveillance.

BackgroundHow an animal moves through its environment directly impacts its survival, reproduction, and thus biological fitness. A basic measure describing how an individual (or group) travels through its environment is Day Path Length (DPL), i.e., the distance travelled in a 24-hour period. Here, we investigate the ecological determinants of baboon (Papio spp.) troop DPL and movements at local and continental scales.ResultsAt the continental scale we explore the ecological determinants of annual mean DPL for 47 baboon troops across 23 different populations, updating a classic study by Dunbar (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31: 35-49, 1992). We find that variation in baboon DPLs is predicted by ecological dissimilarity across the genus range. Troops that experience higher average monthly rainfall and anthropogenic influences have significantly shorter DPL, whilst troops that live in areas with higher average annual temperatures have significantly longer DPL. We then explore DPLs and movement characteristics (the speed and distribution of turning angles) for yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) at a local scale, in the Issa Valley of western Tanzania. We show that our continental-scale model is a good predictor of DPL in Issa baboons, and that troops move significantly slower, and over shorter distances, on warmer days. We do not find any effect of season or the abundance of fruit resources on the movement characteristics or DPL of Issa baboons, but find that baboons moved less during periods of high fruit availability.ConclusionOverall, this study emphasises the ability of baboons to adapt their ranging behaviour to a range of ecological conditions and highlights how investigations of movement patterns at different spatial scales can provide a more thorough understanding of the ecological determinants of movement.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-015-0040-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Primates are one of the most threatened groups of mammals. Understanding their patterns of population occurrence and abundance, especially in response to threats, is critical for informing conservation action. The crested black macaque Macaca nigra is the only Critically Endangered species of Sulawesi's seven endemic macaques. Little is known about its distribution or its response to deforestation and hunting. We conducted a camera-trap survey across the entire species range using an occupancy-based analytical approach to (1) establish the first range-wide baseline of occurrence, (2) investigate how environmental and anthropogenic factors influence occurrence, (3) identify priority conservation subpopulations, and (4) test the efficacy of the sampling and analytical protocol for temporal monitoring of M. nigra using occupancy as the state variable. From 9,753 camera-trap days, M. nigra was detected on 473 days at 77 of the 111 camera locations. Species occupancy was 0.66 and highest inside protected areas and closed canopy forest. We identified eight distinct subpopulations, based on distribution and forest fragment size. To inform future monitoring, we used a power analysis to determine if our effort would allow us to detect inter-annual occupancy declines of 10%, and found that 90 camera locations surveyed for 3 months (8,100 camera days) across three consecutive seasons is the effort required to detect such change with 80% certainty. Our study underscores the importance of well-managed protected areas and intact forests for the long-term survival of the crested black macaque, and tests the effectiveness of camera traps to monitor primates at the landscape scale.

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The Sulawesi civet Macrogalidia musschenbroekii is endemic to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where it is the largest mammalian predator. Limited field data means that little is known about the species’ distribution, habitat preferences, conservation status and needs, but it is believed to depend on primary forest. We conducted camera-trap surveys across the forests of North Sulawesi, including in two of its main protected areas: Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park and Tangkoko Nature Reserve. From 148 camera trap stations and 10,371 trap nights, Sulawesi civets were recorded 17 times at 12 stations, and in almost equal numbers in primary forest, secondary forest and farmland, including the first photographic records from both the National Park and Nature Reserve. We also collected data on the Malay civet Viverra tangalunga, an introduced species of Viverridae and potential competitor. Our records (n = 21) revealed that it is established in secondary forest; it only co-occurred twice with the Sulawesi civet. With a lapse of > 20 years since the last field record of the Sulawesi civet, our findings offer new insight into its status and new enthusiasm within the provincial government for its conservation, which has led to an extension of camera-trap research into neighbouring Gorontalo province.