Environmental factors affect swing gates as a barrier to large carnivores entering game farms

Rust, Niki A.; Nghikembua, Matti T.; Kasser, Joel J. W.; Marker, Laurie

doi:10.1111/aje.12188

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the arid southern regions of Namibia, farmers already successfully use electric fences to protect their livestock. This practice can severely reduce human-predator conflicts and the use of poison, but its implementation may be limited by the high costs and local conditions and it also has negative effects on the free movement of wildlife (Rust et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding, quantifying and mapping the use of poison by commercial farmers in Namibia – Implications for scavengers' conservation and ecosystem health

Santangeli

Arkumarev

Rust

et al. 2016

Biological Conservation

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Effective nature conservation in human-dominated landscapes requires a deep understanding of human behaviors, perceptions and values. Human-wildlife conflicts represent relatively well-studied, global-scale conservation challenges. In Africa, vulture populations are collapsing as they fall victim to poison used by livestock farmers to kill predators, but our understanding of the prevalence of this practice is still very poor.We gathered data on the prevalence of poison use in Namibia by means of questionnaires filled by commercial farmers. The data were collected and analyzed with ad-hoc quantitative methods. We quantified prevalence of poison use, determined factors associated with this practice and derived a map of its prevalence. We found that 20% of commercial farmers in Namibia used poison; farmers that owned high numbers of small stock and on large farms, and those who had suffered high livestock losses to predators, were most likely to admit to using poison. We pinpoint areas of high prevalence of reported poison use, which are largely concentrated in the south of the country. Furthermore, we report a generally positive perception of commercial farmers towards vultures, which may indicate future potential to implement bottom-up approaches for vulture conservation. Overall, the findings have important implications for prioritizing efforts to effectively tackle the African vulture crisis and preserve healthy ecosystems for the wellbeing of humans and wildlife.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding, quantifying and mapping the use of poison by commercial farmers in Namibia – Implications for scavengers' conservation and ecosystem health

Santangeli

Arkumarev

Rust

et al. 2016

Biological Conservation

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“…Solutions currently used to resolve this challenge include education into predator ecology and livestock management (Marker, Mills, & Macdonald, 2003), translocating problem animals (Weise, Stratford, & van Vuuren, 2014), changing husbandry practices (Stein, Fuller, Damery, Sievert, & Marker, 2010), limiting carnivore immigration into farms via fences (Rust, Nghikembua, Kasser, & Marker, 2015;Weise, Wessels, Munro, & Solberg, 2014), using guarding dogs to protect livestock (Marker, Dickman, & Macdonald, 2005;Potgieter, Marker, Avenant, & Kerley, 2013) and cooperatively managing carnivores consumptively and non-consumptively (Marker & Boast, 2015). However, livestock depredation is still increasing nationally (NACSO, 2013), which indicates that either these methods have not been widely adopted and/or may not have proven effective in some circumstances.…”

Section: Conserving Carnivores In Namibiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Namibia -a country where wildlife is more populous on farmland than in protected areas (Krugmann, 2001) -there have been a variety of methods used to reduce conflict with carnivores, including translocating problem animals, using livestock guarding dogs and herders, excluding predators from farms and killing recurrent problem animals (Marker et al, 2005;Rust et al, 2015). Sometimes these techniques have successfully limited livestock depredation, yet farmers are reporting more frequent problems with carnivores (NACSO, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous attempts to improve coexistence between people and carnivores have predominantly focused on reducing real and perceived damage caused by carnivores (e.g. Marker, Mills, & Macdonald, 2003;Rust, Nghikembua, Kasser, & Marker, 2015;Rust, Whitehouse-Tedd, & MacMillan, 2013). Whilst many of these methods have had clear benefits to both people and predators, it is widely regarded that carnivore damage is still increasing in many areas of the world (Karanth, 2002;Mech, 1998;Treves et al, 2002) and it has recently been suggested that focusing on reducing costs is not enough to improve tolerance and behaviour towards carnivores (Skogen, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

Rust¹

2018

Preprint

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Many carnivore populations were in decline throughout much of the 20 th century, but due to recent conservation policies, their numbers are stabilising or even increasing in some areas of the world. This, compounded with human population growth, has caused increased livestock depredation by carnivores, which threatens farmer livelihoods, particularly those in developing countries such as Namibia. How to resolve this so-called "conflict" between carnivores and livestock farmers remains challenging, in part because some mitigation strategies have proven somewhat ineffective or unacceptable. By using a case-study approach on the commercial farmlands of northcentral Namibia, I aimed to understand the complexity of the human dimensions affecting coexistence between carnivores and people in an unprotected working landscape. Specifically, my objectives were to 1) develop a participatory decisionmaking exercise to analyse the views of stakeholders on how they would like carnivores to be managed in unprotected lands, 2) understand how the media framed financial incentives to improve human-carnivore coexistence, and 3) determine if there were any underlying social, economic or political causes of negative human-carnivore interactions on commercial livestock farms.To answer objective 1, I developed a new decision-making exercise that combined Q-methodology and the Delphi technique to determine whether a diverse group of stakeholders could agree on how to manage carnivores on commercial farmland. A strong agreement was reached by participants: providing conservation education and training on livestock husbandry were acceptable and effective ways to improve coexistence with carnivores. This new also method highlighted areas of disagreement between stakeholders and showed that there were two different narratives on how carnivores should be managed. This method could be used by policy makers to help with participatory decision-making for resolving other conservation conflicts.To answer objective 2, I undertook content analysis of national newspapers to determine how the media framed articles on financial incentives to mitigate this conservation conflict. The most common (30%) financial incentive discussed was compensation -many (61%) of these articles framed compensation positively. Niki Rust © 2015However, upon categorising these articles into those where respondents were enrolled in compensation schemes compared with those who were not, a clear pattern emerged: articles were more likely (89%) to be framed ambivalently or negatively when respondents had experience of this financial incentive compared with respondents that did not. These results can help conservationists plan more effective communication interventions and anticipate issues that can affect the success of mitigation strategies.To answer objective 3, I undertook eight months of participant observation on livestock farms and interviewed 69 respondents and found that reported livestock depredation was associated with increased instances of poaching of wildl...

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“…; Coates ; Rust et al . ). One‐way gates are currently not used in fenced reserves for threatened species management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

One‐way gates successfully facilitate the movement of burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur) through exclusion fences around reserve

2018

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When native herbivores are enclosed in fenced reserves without predators or dispersal options then overgrazing can occur, leading to damage to vegetation and co-occurring fauna species. One-way gates that allow medium-sized herbivores to exit fenced reserves may be an effective management tool to address overabundance or facilitate population expansion. We tested the use of one-way gates to facilitate the movement of the reintroduced burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur) from inside to outside a fenced reserve in arid South Australia. Oneway gates were installed in the exterior fence of the reserve and assessed using remote motion-sensor cameras. The influence of gate position (dune, swale or corner) and provision of food were assessed in relation to gate visits and exits. Animals were trapped inside and outside the gates to determine any population bias in gate exits. Baited gates recorded significantly more exits than unbaited gates and dune gates had higher exit rates than interdunal swale gates. When gates were unbaited, those installed in corners of the reserve showed significantly higher visitation by bettongs and a non-significant trend towards more exits compared to gates placed in straight sections of fence along dunes or swales. There was no sex or age bias of burrowing bettongs using the gates and bettongs travelled between 75 m and 1535 m from their warrens to use the gates. No non-target species gained access to the reserve through the one-way gates and only two non-target animals used the gates to exit the reserve confirming gate specificity for bettongs. During the same period, 96 burrowing bettongs exited the reserve through the one-way gates. One-way gates may be a management strategy for facilitating passive movement of medium-sized herbivores outside of fenced reserves for the purposes of reducing overpopulation or facilitating population expansion outside reserves.One-way gates were based on a combination of two gate designs tested during pen trials by Crisp and Moseby

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Environmental factors affect swing gates as a barrier to large carnivores entering game farms

Cited by 7 publications

References 8 publications

Understanding, quantifying and mapping the use of poison by commercial farmers in Namibia – Implications for scavengers' conservation and ecosystem health

Understanding, quantifying and mapping the use of poison by commercial farmers in Namibia – Implications for scavengers' conservation and ecosystem health

Understanding the human dimensions of coexistence between carnivores and people: A case study in Namibia

One‐way gates successfully facilitate the movement of burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur) through exclusion fences around reserve

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