Evaluating the protection of wildlife in parks: the case of African buffalo in Serengeti

Abstract

Human population growth rates on the borders of protected areas in Africa are nearly double the average rural growth, suggesting that protected areas attract human settlement. Increasing human populations could be a threat to biodiversity through increases in illegal hunting. In the Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania, there have been marked declines in black rhino (Diceros bicornis), elephant (Loxodonta africana) and African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) inside the protected area during a period when there was a reduction of protection through anti-poaching effort . Subsequently, protection effort has increased and has remained stable. During both periods there were major differences in population decline and recovery in different areas. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the possible causes of the spatial differences. We used a spatially structured population model to analyze the impacts of three factors-(i) hunting, (ii) food shortage and (iii) natural predation. Population changes were best explained by illegal hunting but model fit improved with the addition of predation mortality and the effect of food supply in areas where hunting was least. We used a GIS analysis to determine variation in human settlement rates and related those rates to intrinsic population changes in buffalo. Buffalo populations in close proximity to areas with higher rates of human settlement had low or 123Biodivers Conserv (2010) 19:3431-3444 DOI 10.1007/s10531-010-9904-z negative rates of increase and were slowest to recover or failed to recover at all. The increase in human populations along the western boundary of the Serengeti ecosystem has led to negative consequences for wildlife populations, pointing to the need for enforcement of wildlife laws to mitigate these effects.

Assessing the effect of roads on impala (Aepyceros melampus) stress levels using faecal glucocorticoid metabolites

“…If animals are unable to move to a new habitat, chronically elevated GC levels from road disturbance can decrease the fitness of the populations near the road (Sapolsky et al 2000). The SNP has already limited habitat for several species due to poaching along the park borders which is causing negative population increases in these areas (Holmern et al 2004;Metzger et al 2007;Metzger et al 2010). Although the new road can possibly reduce poverty and therefore reduce poaching (Fyumagwa et al 2013), subsequent road disturbance should be limited to avoid the possible negative effects described above.…”

Population regulation of African buffalo in the Mara–Serengeti ecosystem

“…Even though natural predators, primarily lions, do kill buffaloes (Pienaar 1969;Schaller 1972), predation is likely a secondary cause of the observed declines (Sinclair 1977;Metzger et al 2010). This suggestion is supported by work carried out in the Kruger National Park, South Africa (Mills et al 1995;Ogutu and Owen-Smith 2003;Mills 2006, 2008;Marshal et al 2011) and in the Serengeti (Mduma et al 1999) that showed that rainfall is the primary factor that underpins trends in ungulate populations, including buffalo, but that lion predation increased during droughts when buffaloes were weak and thus more vulnerable (H. T. Dublin, pers.…”

“…Extreme food scarcity during severe droughts are often associated with massive die-off of large numbers of grazing ungulates in African savannas. For example, the severe drought of 1993-94 killed~14 448 (40%) of 36 119 buffalo (Metzger et al 2010) and a quarter of a million of 1.5 million wildebeest (Mduma et al 1999) in the Serengeti National Park. Likewise, the 1999-2000 drought, which was also extreme and widespread, killed 1500 buffaloes plus virtually all buffalo calves under 9 months old in the Ngorongoro Crater (Estes et al 2006).…”

Participatory wetland conservation in Yok Don National Park, Vietnam

“…Some of these challenges lie in the reality that protected areas lie on Indigenous people's traditional estates and Indigenous people wish to continue to use resources to sustain their livelihoods and exercise their human and Indigenous rights to make decisions on how these areas are managed (Roe et al, 2013, Walker et al, 2013, Zander et al, 2014. Protected areas can be damaged directly by the increase in timber extraction, hunting and land clearing for agricultural purposes which can impact negatively on wildlife populations (Brashares et al, 2001, Fritz et al, 2003, Metzger et al, 2010, Estes et al, 2012. The massive reduction of wildlife habitat by the global trend of conserving the natural ecosystems into areas for human use has led into "extinction crises" (Hoekstra et al, 2005).…”

“…A growing concern is that Indigenous and local community use of natural resources in protected areas has intensified to a point which poses a threat to biodiversity conservation. Threats to protected areas can be divided into two main categories; the first encompasses habitat loss and degradation as a result of conversion of forest to pastureland and agriculture while the second relates to overexploitation of natural resources including collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), overfishing, logging and overgrazing by livestock (Brashares et al, 2001, Fritz et al, 2003, Alers et al, 2007, Metzger et al, 2010, Estes et al, 2012.…”