Conservation planners need reliable information on spatial patterns of biodiversity. However, existing data sets are skewed because some ecosystems, taxa, and locations are underrepresented. We determined how many articles have been published in recent decades on the biodiversity of different countries and their constituent provinces. We searched the Web of Science catalogues Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) for biodiversity‐related articles published from 1993 to 2016 that included country and province names. We combined data on research publication frequency with other provincial‐scale factors hypothesized to affect the likelihood of research activity (i.e., economic development, human presence, infrastructure, and remoteness). Areas that appeared understudied relative to the biodiversity expected based on site climate likely have been inaccessible to researchers for reasons, notably armed conflict. Geographic publication bias is of most concern in the most remote areas of sub‐Saharan Africa and South America. Our provincial‐scale model may help compensate for publication biases in conservation planning by revealing the spatial extent of research needs and the low cost of redoing this analysis annually.
One of the largest of antelopes, Derby eland (Taurotragus derbianus), is an important ecosystem component of African savannah. While the western subspecies is Critically Endangered, the eastern subspecies is classified as least concern. Our study presents the first investigation of population dynamics of the Derby eland in the Chinko/Mbari Drainage Basin, Central African Republic, and assesses the conservation role of this population. We analysed data from 63 camera traps installed in 2012. The number of individuals captured within a single camera event ranged from one to 41. Herds were mostly mixed by age and sex, mean group size was 5.61, larger during the dry season. Adult (AD) males constituted only 20% of solitary individuals. The overall sex ratio (M:F) was 1:1.33, while the AD sex ratio shifted to 1:1.52, reflecting selective hunting pressure. Mean density ranged from 0.04 to 0.16 individuals/km 2 , giving an estimated population size of 445-1,760 individuals. Chinko harbours one of the largest documented populations of Derby eland in Central Africa, making Chinko one of its potential conservation hotspots. R esum eUne des plus grandes antilopes, l' eland de Derby (Taurotragus derbianus) est une composante importante de l' ecosyst eme de savane africaine. Alors que la sous-esp ece de l'Ouest est "En danger critique d'extinction", la sous-esp ece de l'Est est class ee comme "Pr eoccupation mineure". Notre etude pr esente la premi ere enquête sur la dynamique de la population de l' eland de Derby dans le bassin de drainage de Chinko/Mbari, en R epublique Centrafricaine, et elle evalue le rôle de cette population pour la conservation. Nous avons analys e les donn ees provenant de 63 pi eges photographiques install es en 2012. Le nombre d'individus captur es par une seule cam era allait de 1 a 41. Les troupeaux etaient en g en eral m elang es quel que soit l'âge et le sexe, et la taille moyenne d'un groupe etait de 5.61 individus, plus grand en saison s eche. Les mâles adultes ne repr esentaient que 20% des animaux solitaires. Le sexratio global (M/F) etait de 1/1.33, alors que le sex-ratio des adultes passait a 1/1.52, refl etant l'impact de la pression s elective de la chasse. La densit e moyenne allait de 0.04 a 0.16 individu/km², ce qui donne une population estim ee entre 445 et 1,760 individus. Chinko accueille une des plus grandes populations d' elands de Derby connues en Afrique centrale, ce qui en fait un des hauts lieux potentiels de leur conservation.
Pastoralism is spreading in Central Africa, where many protected areas are under consideration to be opened for grazing, in particular hunting zones. Here we document the loss of biodiversity followed by an influx of transhumant pastoralism into previously uninhabited and virtually pristine habitat in the Central African Republic. Our track count and camera trap surveys of 2012, 2016 and 2017 evidence a reduction of apex predators, particularly Northern lions (Panthera leo leo) and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), of which about 95% and 80% were lost, respectively. While some large herbivores such as Western African buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus) or Eastern giant eland (Tragelaphus derbianus gigas) were also strongly reduced, most herbivores remain at significant densities. Apex predator populations did thus not crash due to a lack of prey, but rather due to targeted killing by herders and accompanying merchants, as interviews confirmed. Our call-up survey suggests that lions were attracted by livestock outside of actively protected areas, were they got poisoned or shot. These findings exemplify the potential negative effects of pastoralism on wildlife even in large areas with intact habitat. We thus caution against the transformation of protected areas or hunting zones into pasture land, unless such a land-use change can be carefully managed and strictly controlled.
A B S T R A C TVast, pristine ecosystems and their biodiversity are vanishing globally at frightening speed, but many large tracts of wilderness have not yet been systematically inventoried and important natural populations of threatened species remain poorly characterized. The forest-savanna ecotone of the Eastern Central African Republic (CAR) is one such poorly studied area. Using camera traps, transect walks and collected fecal samples, we provide the first quantitative survey of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in this region previously classified as a highly important chimpanzee conservation unit. In contrast to species distribution models and expert predictions, we did not find any evidence of chimpanzees in the large and remote forest blocks west of the Chinko River despite considerable search effort. Our study thus highlights the limitations of relying solely on remote sensing data to predict the presence or absence of endangered species and illustrates the necessity of extensive field surveys to accurately assess occurrence and density in remote areas. However, we did discover a sizeable and reproducing population of chimpanzees east of the Chinko River. Based on a density of 0.81 chimpanzees/km 2 in closed canopy forest that we inferred from nest count data, we estimate 910 weaned chimpanzees to inhabit the Chinko Nature Reserve (CNR) and further predict additional 2700 individuals in adjacent, unmanaged hunting zones and reserves. According to microsatellite data, these chimpanzees genetically cluster with P. t. schweinfurthii populations in East Africa. Conservation action and appropriate management plans are urgently needed to protect this important population and to prevent heavily-armed nomadic pastoralists from the Sahel, illegal miners, as well as elephant and meat poachers, from irretrievably destroying the natural vegetation and local biodiversity of the area.
SummaryWolf populations are recovering and expanding across Europe, causing conflicts with livestock owners. To mitigate these conflicts and reduce livestock damages, authorities spend considerable resources to compensate damages, support damage prevention measures, and manage wolf populations. However, the effectiveness of these measures remains largely unknown, especially at larger geographic scales. Here we compiled incident-based livestock damage data across 21 countries for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, during which 39,445 wolf-caused incidents were reported from 470 NUTS3 regions. We found substantial regional variation in all aspects of the data, including the primary target species, the density of damages, their seasonal distribution, and their temporal trend. About one third of the variation in damage densities is explained by the area of heterogeneous landscapes consisting of forests and extensively cultivated habitats occupied by wolves. However, most of the variation remains unexplained, illustrating the inherently stochastic nature of wolf-caused livestock damages and regional variation in husbandry practices, including damage prevention measures. As we argue, the intensity of the wolf-human conflict may be monitored through trends in livestock damages, which are robust to variation in data collection across regions. We estimated increasing trends for the majority of regions, reflecting the current expansion of wolves across the continent. Nonetheless, many of these increases were moderate and for more than one third of all regions, trends were negative despite a growing wolf populations, thus indicating that wolf-livestock conflicts can be successfully mitigated with proper management.
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