As the environment becomes increasingly altered by human development, the importance of understanding the ways in which wildlife interact with modified landscapes is becoming clear. Areas such as industrial sites are sometimes presumed to have little conservation value, but many of these sites have areas of less disturbed habitats around their core infrastructure, which could provide ideal conditions to support some species, such as mesocarnivores. We conducted the first assessments of the density of serval (Leptailurus serval) at the Secunda Synfuels Operations plant, South Africa, using camera trap surveys analysed within a spatially explicit capture recapture framework. We show that servals occurred at densities of 76.20–101.21 animals per 100 km², which are higher than previously recorded densities for this species, presumably due to high abundance of prey and the absence of persecution and/or competitor species. Our findings highlight the significant conservation potential of industrialised sites, and we suggest that such sites could help contribute towards meeting conservation goals.

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The current geographical distribution of the Egyptian Mongoose or Large Grey Mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon (Linnaeus, 1758), in South Africa is limited to the south-eastern coastal and eastern sections of the country. One recent sighting in the central part of the country suggested a wider geographical distribution. In this study, we report on confirmed sightings of the Egyptian Mongoose on consecutive years in the central part (at Sasol's Synfuels Plant in Secunda) of the country. Our sightings thus expand the distribution of the Egyptian Mongoose in South Africa to include some sections of the central to eastern part of the country.

As the environment becomes increasingly altered by human development, the importance of understanding the ways in which wildlife interact with modified landscapes is becoming clear. Areas such as industrial sites are sometimes presumed to have little conservation value, but many of these sites have areas of less disturbed habitats around their core infrastructure, which could provide ideal conditions to support some species, such as mesocarnivores. We conducted the first assessments of the density of serval (Leptailurus serval) at the Secunda Synfuels Operations plant, South Africa. We ran three camera trap surveys to estimate serval density using a spatially explicit capture recapture framework. Servals occurred at densities of 76.20-101.21 animals per 100 km2, which are the highest recorded densities for this species, presumably due to high abundance of prey and the absence of persecution and/or competitor species. Our findings highlight the significant conservation potential of industrialised sites, and we suggest that such sites could help contribute towards meeting conservation goals.

No abstract