Landscape correlates of space use in the critically endangered African wild dog Lycaon pictus

Abstract

Human-carnivore conflict can threaten human life and livelihoods, leading to retaliation that negatively affects carnivore conservation. The endangered African wild dog Lycaon pictus is prone to human-carnivore conflict. Therefore, it is imperative to understand which landscape features are associated with African wild dog occurrence since selection or avoidance of these features could predict the levels of conflict. We investigated resource selection in the African wild dog in relation to four anthropogenic landscape features (livestock density, agriculture, roads and human land use) within the landscape that may pose a mortality risk, as well as one natural feature (nature reserves). We compared spatio-temporal space use patterns of four African wild dog packs in north-eastern South Africa. Data were collected from one collared individual per pack. These packs constituted approximately 10% of the total remaining African wild dog population in South Africa. Two packs occurred outside of the Kruger National Park and had access to multiple areas with farmland and other anthropogenic features, whereas the remaining two packs mainly occurred within the boundaries of the Kruger National Park but made occasional forays outside of park boundaries. Utilising Resource Selection Functions and GIS analyses, we found that agricultural landscape features, roads and nature reserves were important predictors of African wild dog occurrence for all four packs. In addition to potential conflict with farmers, high odds of occurrence on roads with fast-moving traffic and road mortality was highlighted as a concern for three of the packs. While farms and areas that house livestock were readily available, pack presence occurred in areas with few farms and low livestock densities, pointing to avoidance of areas where human-carnivore conflict and resulting mortality could occur. Our study highlights potential threats to the persistence of the African wild dog, which can be used to inform future conservation efforts of the species.

Estimating mesocarnivore abundance on commercial farmland using distance sampling with camera traps

“…However, although there are likely several drivers of mesocarnivore population abundance, the limited extent of top‐down pressure on the Alldays mesocarnivore populations might account for some of these higher estimates (Minnie et al, 2016; Yarnell et al, 2016). The majority of large carnivore species have been hunted to extirpation around Alldays, with small populations of lion (Snyman et al, 2015), cheetah (Marnewick et al, 2017) and wild dog (Pretorius et al, 2019) restricted to just the north of Alldays around the Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve and into Botswana. Our data also suggest limited numbers of spotted hyena in the Alldays area (Supporting Information Table S1).…”

Evaluation of lion (Panthera leo) scat as a wild dog (Lycaon pictus) deterrent on game farms

“…Quantum GIS (ver. 3.14, QGIS Development Team 2021) was used to visualise estimated home ranges and if the home range included areas that were disconnected by hard boundaries (e.g. rivers), and preliminary data had shown that these areas were not utilised by the wild dogs, the home range was clipped to the hard boundary (effective home range).…”

“…the Mapesu Private Game Reserve). Collars provided four to six GPS fixes per day at varying intervals, providing an adequate sampling frequency for a mobile species that can cover large distances daily (Pretorius et al 2019). Two to eight weeks of movement data were used to calculate home ranges (95% isopleth) for each site prior to the experiment, after which the privately owned land within the home range was subdivided into plots.…”