Unmanned aerial vehicles mitigate human–elephant conflict on the borders of Tanzanian Parks: a case study

Hahn, Nathan; Mwakatobe, Angela; Konuche, Jonathan; Souza, Nadia de; Keyyu, Julius D.; Goss, Marc; Chang'a, Alex; Palminteri, Suzanne; Dinerstein, Eric; Olson, David M.

doi:10.1017/s0030605316000946

Cited by 73 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In the terrestrial world, UAVs have been used for a wide variety of conservation applications (van Gemert et al, 2014;Gonzalez et al, 2016). Some examples include, counting elephants (Loxodonta africana) (Linchant et al, 2013;Vermeulen et al, 2013), UAV surveillance (anti-poaching tools) for elephants and rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis and Ceratotherium simum) (Marks, 2014;MuleroPázmány et al, 2014;Hahn et al, 2017), locating chimpanzee nests (Pan troglodytes) (van Andel et al, 2015) and mapping Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) habitat, distribution and density Szantoi et al, 2017). UAV applications now extend to the polar regions where they have been used to monitor and estimate abundance of penguin populations (gentoo, Pygoscelis papua, and chinstrap, Pygoscelis antarctica) and estimate size and condition of leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) (Goebel et al, 2015;Ratcliffe et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Economical Custom-Built Drone for Assessing Whale Health

Pirotta

Smith²,

Ostrowski

et al. 2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Drones or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have huge potential to improve the safety and efficiency of sample collection from wild animals under logistically challenging circumstances. Here we present a method for surveying population health that uses UAVs to sample respiratory vapor, 'whale blow,' exhaled by free-swimming humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and coupled this with amplification and sequencing of respiratory tract microbiota. We developed a low-cost multirotor UAV incorporating a sterile petri dish with a remotely operated 'blow' to sample whale blow with minimal disturbance to the whales. This design addressed several sampling challenges: accessibility; safety; cost, and critically, minimized the collection of atmospheric and seawater microbiota and other potential sources of sample contamination. We collected 59 samples of blow from northward migrating humpback whales off Sydney, Australia and used high throughput sequencing of bacterial ribosomal gene markers to identify putative respiratory tract microbiota. Model-based comparisons with seawater and dronecaptured air demonstrated that our system minimized external sources of contamination and successfully captured sufficient material to identify whale blow-specific microbial taxa. Whale-specific taxa included species and genera previously associated with the respiratory tracts or oral cavities of mammals (e.g., Pseudomonas, Clostridia, Cardiobacterium), as well as species previously isolated from dolphin or killer whale blowholes (Corynebacteria, others). Many examples of exogenous marine species were identified, including Tenacibaculum and Psychrobacter spp. that have been associated with the skin microbiota of marine mammals and fish and may include pathogens. This information provides a baseline of respiratory tract microbiota profiles of contemporary whale health. Customized UAVs are a promising new tool for marine megafauna research and may have broad application in cost-effective monitoring and management of whale populations worldwide.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Economical Custom-Built Drone for Assessing Whale Health

Pirotta

Smith²,

Ostrowski

et al. 2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Hunting also adds to household income. Known tools to reduce illegal hunting include devolution of wildlife management authority to communities with legitimate claims to land (Cooney et al 2017;Roe et al 2015), anti-poaching patrols (Hilborn et al 2006), demand reduction (Vigne and Martin 2017), protein substitution (Besbes et al 2012), technology such as drones to reduce humanwildlife conflict and detect poachers (Hahn et al 2017;Mulero-Pázmány et al 2014), and community members trained to avert human-wildlife conflicts (Chang'a et al 2016). Despite these known tools, investment at the scale necessary to address hunting threats to wildlife is currently lacking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ranking the direct threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa

Leisher

Robinson

Brown

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Sub-Saharan Africa benefits from large investments in biodiversity conservation, yet there is no prioritization of the many direct threats to biodiversity available to inform organizations developing sub-Saharan or sub-regional conservation strategies. Consequently, regional investments by funders of biodiversity conservation such as international conservation organizations, foundations, and bilateral and multilateral donors may be suboptimal. To identify the priority threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, we classified the direct threats to biodiversity using standardized threats categories and triangulated data from a Delphi consensus of sub-Saharan Africa biodiversity experts, known threats to IUCN Red-listed sub-Saharan African species, and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans from 47 sub-Saharan African countries. After ranking the threats from each source and averaging the rankings, we find that the highest threats are: annual and perennial crops (non-timber); logging and wood harvesting (natural forests); fishing and harvesting aquatic resources (marine and freshwater); and hunting and collecting terrestrial animals. Within the sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa there is considerable variation. The highest ranked threat in Central Africa is hunting. In East Africa, it is agriculture. In Southern Africa, it is invasive non-native/alien species, and in West Africa, agriculture and logging are tied as the highest threats. There are known ways to address all of these threats, and concentrating investments on these threats while accounting for unique socio-ecological contexts across sub-Saharan Africa is essential for the sustained conservation of biodiversity.

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“…Indeed, elephants are frequently perceived as a considerable threat to crops, human safety, and property in the area (Bencin, Kioko, & Kiffner, 2016). In cooperation with multiple nongovernmental organizations, the management of BWMA addresses this issue by testing and implementing multiple strategies to prevent and mitigate crop damages by elephants (Chang'a et al, 2016;Hahn et al, 2017). Although benefit sharing models and adaptive management practices to curb damages by wildlife species and benefit sharing models are in place, these approaches could potentially be more effective (Brehony et al, 2018;Kicheleri, Treue, Nielsen, Kajembe, & Mombo, 2018), so that the ecological success of this community-based conservation area does not come at the expense of local livelihoods (Salerno et al, 2016).…”

Section: Conservation Value and Implications Of Effective Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Community‐based wildlife management area supports similar mammal species richness and densities compared to a national park

Kiffner¹,

Thomas

Speaker

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Community-based conservation models have been widely implemented across Africa to improve wildlife conservation and livelihoods of rural communities. In Tanzania, communities can set aside land and formally register it as Wildlife Management Area (WMA), which allows them to generate revenue via consumptive or nonconsumptive utilization of wildlife. The key, yet often untested, assumption of this model is that economic benefits accrued from wildlife motivate sustainable management of wildlife. To test the ecological effectiveness (here defined as persistence of wildlife populations) of Burunge Wildlife Management Area (BWMA), we employed a participatory monitoring approach involving WMA personnel. At intermittent intervals between 2011 and 2018, we estimated mammal species richness and population densities of ten mammal species (African elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, wildebeest, waterbuck, warthog, impala, Kirk's dik-dik, and vervet monkey) along line transects. We compared mammal species accumulation curves and density estimates with those of time-matched road transect surveys conducted in adjacent Tarangire National Park (TNP). Mammal species richness estimates were similar in both areas, yet observed species richness per transect was greater in TNP compared to BWMA.Species-specific density estimates of time-matched surveys were mostly not significantly different between BWMA and TNP, but elephants occasionally reached greater densities in TNP compared to BWMA. In BWMA, elephant, wildebeest, and impala populations showed significant increases from 2011 to 2018. These results suggest that community-based conservation models can support mammal communities and densities that are similar to national park baselines. In light of the ecological success of this case study, we emphasize the need for continued efforts to ensure that the BWMA is effective. This will require adaptive management to counteract potential negative repercussions of wildlife populations on peoples' livelihoods. This study can be used as a model to evaluate the effectiveness of wildlife management areas across Tanzania.

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Unmanned aerial vehicles mitigate human–elephant conflict on the borders of Tanzanian Parks: a case study

Cited by 73 publications

References 18 publications

An Economical Custom-Built Drone for Assessing Whale Health

An Economical Custom-Built Drone for Assessing Whale Health

Ranking the direct threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa

Community‐based wildlife management area supports similar mammal species richness and densities compared to a national park

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