Rhino Management Challenges: Spatial and Social Ecology for Habitat and Population Management

Linklater, Wayne L.; Shrader, Adrian M.

doi:10.1017/9781139382793.016

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Elephant and giraffe were (re)introduced in the early 1980s and mid-1950s, respectively and their populations have grown dramatically to a current density of 0.7 elephants/km 2 [29] and approximately 0.5 giraffes/km 2 [30]. Active protection of white rhino has seen populations recover from near extinction to an estimated 2.6 individuals/km 2 [31]. In contrast, populations of small to medium-sized mammalian herbivore species have generally declined across HiP, and particularly from the northern parts of the park [30].…”

Section: Star+methods Key Resources Table Contact For Reagent and Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Megaherbivores Modify Trophic Cascades Triggered by Fear of Predation in an African Savanna Ecosystem

2018

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The loss of apex consumers (large mammals at the top of their food chain) is a major driver of global change [1]. Yet, research on the two main apex consumer guilds, large carnivores [2] and megaherbivores [3], has developed independently, overlooking any potential interactions. Large carnivores provoke behavioral responses in prey [1, 4], driving prey to distribute themselves within a "landscape of fear" [5] and intensify their impacts on lower trophic levels in low-risk areas [6], where they may concentrate nutrients through localized dung deposition [7, 8]. We suggest, however, that megaherbivores modify carnivore-induced trophic cascades. Megaherbivores (>1,000 kg [9]) are largely invulnerable to predation and should respond less to the landscape of fear, thereby counteracting the effects of fear-triggered trophic cascades. By experimentally clearing plots to increase visibility and reduce predation risk, we tested the collective role of both apex consumer guilds in influencing nutrient dynamics in African savanna. We evaluated whether megaherbivores could counteract a behaviorally mediated trophic cascade by redistributing nutrients that accumulate through fear-driven prey aggregations. Our experiment showed that mesoherbivores concentrated fecal nutrients in more open habitat, but that megaherbivores moved nutrients against this fear-driven nutrient accumulation by feeding within the open habitat, yet defecating more evenly across the risk gradient. This work adds to the growing recognition of functional losses that are likely to have accompanied megafaunal extinctions by contributing empirical evidence from one of the last systems with a functionally complete megaherbivore assemblage. Our results suggest that carnivore-induced trophic cascades work differently in a world of giants.

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Section: Star+methods Key Resources Table Contact For Reagent and Resmentioning

confidence: 99%

Megaherbivores Modify Trophic Cascades Triggered by Fear of Predation in an African Savanna Ecosystem

2018

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“…For example, simulating source-sink dynamics in the larger reserves has met with some, but mixed, success for rhino [7]. Evaluating its usefulness and limitations depends on our understanding of rhino movement, particularly dispersal [8]. Where an entire population is a donor for the meta-population, rapid compensatory reproduction depends also on dispersal and range recolonization [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evaluating its usefulness and limitations depends on our understanding of rhino movement, particularly dispersal [8]. Where an entire population is a donor for the meta-population, rapid compensatory reproduction depends also on dispersal and range recolonization [8]. Moreover, mitigating the significant environmental and social risks inherent in rhinos’ release into unfamiliar habitat and populations [6] depends also on anticipating the movement behavior of released individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mesoscale movement and recursion behaviors of Namibian black rhinos

et al. 2019

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BackgroundUnderstanding rhino movement behavior, especially their recursive movements, holds significant promise for enhancing rhino conservation efforts, and protecting their habitats and the biodiversity they support. Here we investigate the daily, biweekly, and seasonal recursion behavior of rhinos, to aid conservation applications and increase our foundational knowledge about these important ecosystem engineers.MethodsUsing relocation data from 59 rhinos across northern Namibia and 8 years of sampling efforts, we investigated patterns in 24-h displacement at dawn, dusk, midday, and midnight to examine movement behaviors at an intermediate scale and across daily behavioral modes of foraging and resting. To understand recursion patterns across animals’ short and long-term ranges, we built T-LoCoH time use grids to estimate recursive movement by each individual. Comparing these grids to contemporaneous MODIS imagery, we investigated productivity’s influence on short-term space use and recursion. Finally, we investigated patterns of recursion within a year’s home range, measuring the time to return to the most intensively used patches.ResultsTwenty four-hour displacements at dawn were frequently smaller than 24-h displacements at dusk or at midday and midnight resting periods. Recursion analyses demonstrated that short-term recursion was most common in areas of median rather than maximum NDVI values. Investigated across a full year, recursion analysis showed rhinos most frequently returned to areas within 8–21 days, though visits were also seen separated by months likely suggesting seasonality in range use.ConclusionsOur results indicate that rhinos may frequently stay within the same area of their home ranges for days at a time, and possibly return to the same general area days in a row especially during morning foraging bouts. Recursion across larger time scales is also evident, and likely a contributing mechanism for maintaining open landscapes and browsing lawns of the savanna.

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“…South Africa conserves about 86% of the world's estimated 18,000 white rhinos (Emslie et al., 2019). The country's success in conserving rhinos has been partially due to its inclusion of private landowners in rhino ownership since the 1960s (Linklater & Shrader, 2017). The opportunity to (a) purchase white rhinos from their last remaining population in Hluhluwe‐iMfolozi Park (and more recently from other national parks and reserves) and (b) offer limited trophy hunting at high prices (averaging 90 individuals/year since 2004; Online Appendix 1), incentivized private landowners to conserve and trade rhinos (Cooney et al., 2017; ’t Sas‐Rolfes, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Private rhino conservation: Diverse strategies adopted in response to the poaching crisis

Clements

Knight

Jones³

et al. 2020

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Private landowners in South Africa conserve roughly 40% of white rhinos globally. Given concerns that escalating poaching has caused private-rhino owners to disinvest, we used a national survey to assess 171 private-rhino owners' responses to the crisis. Twenty-eight percent of rhino owners are disinvesting in rhino, 57% are pursuing business-as-usual (largely ecotourism), and 15% are investing in more rhinos. It is currently unclear whether this diversity in private-rhino owners' responses to the crisis is increasing the resilience of the rhino population to poaching. Some rhino investors show signs of financial stress. Most owners support rhino-horn trade to fund conservation, yet international trade remains banned. By contrast, a recent national policy amendment allows rhinos to be managed as livestock, risking a shift from rhino-for-conservation to rhinofor-production on private land. Our findings highlight an urgent need to ensure policies keep pace with dynamic socioeconomic environments that influence the sustainability of wildlife use.

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Rhino Management Challenges: Spatial and Social Ecology for Habitat and Population Management

Cited by 7 publications

References 29 publications

Megaherbivores Modify Trophic Cascades Triggered by Fear of Predation in an African Savanna Ecosystem

Megaherbivores Modify Trophic Cascades Triggered by Fear of Predation in an African Savanna Ecosystem

Mesoscale movement and recursion behaviors of Namibian black rhinos

Private rhino conservation: Diverse strategies adopted in response to the poaching crisis

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