Alleviating human-carnivore conflict is central to large carnivore conservation and is often of economic importance where people co-exist with carnivores. However, effective conflict mitigation requires knowledge of underlying human and environmental drivers that is largely absent in South Africa. From 2006 to 2008, we interviewed land owners in the North West Province of South Africa to quantify; 1) human-carnivore conflict characteristics and; 2) determinants of perceived predation levels and retaliatory persecution of carnivores. Carnivores reportedly killed 3755 animals i.e. 2.77% of total game and livestock holdings. Reported financial losses were unevenly distributed among individuals, but generally not of sufficient magnitude to constitute a serious economic threat. Dense cover, increasing distance from protected areas and land use were the most influential determinants of perceived predation levels. Cultural group was by far the most influential determinant of carnivore persecution. Black-backed jackals and caracals were most often implicated in predation and most frequently killed by interviewees.Conflict in the North West Province appears to be driven more by social and environmental factors than by economic losses. Therefore, mitigation efforts that foster positive attitudes to carnivores may have greater impact than activities intended to reduce livestock predation losses. More generally, our combination of socio-economic interviews and information theoretic analysis demonstrates a simple and effective method for identifying the key determinants of complex human-wildlife conflicts.

Conservation and management of brown hyaenas (Hyaena brunnea) is hampered by a lack of information on abundance and distribution, which is difficult and labour-intensive to obtain. However, occupancy surveys offer a potentially efficient and robust means of assessing brown hyaena populations. We evaluate the efficacy of camera trapping for estimating brown hyaena occupancy, and the effect of environmental variables and lures on detection probability. We estimated population density in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, at 2.8/100 km 2 , occupancy at 1.0 and model-averaged detection probability at 0.1. Using a fish lure increased detection probability to 0.2 and significantly increased encounter rates. We also found that brown hyaenas are more likely to be detected in areas of scrub or woodland rather than grassland. Our results suggest that 13 camera sites would be needed to achieve an occupancy estimate with S.E. of 0.05, and a minimum of 16-34 sampling occasions (with and without the fish lure) should be used in comparable study areas. We conclude that camera trapping is a viable method of estimating brown hyaena occupancy at local and landscape scales and capture-recapture analysis is also possible at a local scale.

a b s t r a c tCarnivore survey protocols that properly address spatial sampling and detectability issues are seldom feasible at a landscape-scale. This limits knowledge of large-scale patterns in distribution, abundance and their underlying determinants, hindering conservation of globally threatened carnivore populations. Occupancy analysis of data from logistically efficient sign surveys along consecutive road segments (spatially auto-correlated replicates) offers a potential solution. We adapted and applied this newly-developed method over 62,979 km 2 of human-modified land in South Africa. Our aims were to (1) generate unbiased estimates of brown hyaena occupancy and abundance (2) investigate two suspected determinants of occupancy using a combination of biological and socio-economic sampling techniques, and (3) use simulations to evaluate the effort required for abundance and occupancy estimates with acceptable bias, precision and power. Brown hyaena occupancy was estimated at 0.748 (±SE 0.1), and estimated overall density in agricultural land (0.15/100 km 2 , ±SE 0.08) was an order of magnitude lower than in protected areas. Positive attitudes to carnivores and presence of wildlife farms exerted strong positive effects on occupancy, so changes in these factors may well exert monotonic impacts on local metapopulation status. Producing reliable occupancy and abundance estimates would require P6 replicates and P12 replicates per site respectively. Detecting 50% and 30% declines in brown hyaena occupancy with adequate power would require five annual surveys at P65 sites and P125 sites respectively. Our results suggest that protocols based on spatially auto-correlated sign survey replicates could be used to monitor carnivore populations at large, and possibly even country-wide spatial scales.