Winterbach Hanlie E K, Winterbach Christiaan W, Somers Michael J
Tau Consultants (Pty) Ltd, Maun, Botswana; Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa; Centre for Invasion Biology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
PLoS One. 2014 Jun 20;9(6):e100202. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0100202. eCollection 2014.
Wide-ranging large carnivores often range beyond the boundaries of protected areas into human-dominated areas. Mapping out potentially suitable habitats on a country-wide scale and identifying areas with potentially high levels of threats to large carnivore survival is necessary to develop national conservation action plans. We used a novel approach to map and identify these areas in Botswana for its large carnivore guild consisting of lion (Panthera leo), leopard (Panthera pardus), spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta), brown hyaena (Hyaena brunnea), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). The habitat suitability for large carnivores depends primarily on prey availability, interspecific competition, and conflict with humans. Prey availability is most likely the strongest natural determinant. We used the distribution of biomass of typical wild ungulate species occurring in Botswana which is preyed upon by the six large carnivores to evaluate the potential suitability of the different management zones in the country to sustain large carnivore populations. In areas where a high biomass of large prey species occurred, we assumed interspecific competition between dominant and subordinated competitors to be high. This reduced the suitability of these areas for conservation of subordinate competitors, and vice versa. We used the percentage of prey biomass of the total prey and livestock biomass to identify areas with potentially high levels of conflict in agricultural areas. High to medium biomass of large prey was mostly confined to conservation zones, while small prey biomass was more evenly spread across large parts of the country. This necessitates different conservation strategies for carnivores with a preference for large prey, and those that can persist in the agricultural areas. To ensure connectivity between populations inside Botswana and also with its neighbours, a number of critical areas for priority management actions exist in the agricultural zones.
分布广泛的大型食肉动物常常越过保护区边界，进入人类主导的区域。在全国范围内绘制出潜在适宜栖息地，并确定对大型食肉动物生存构成潜在高威胁的区域，对于制定国家保护行动计划而言是必要的。我们采用了一种新颖的方法，在博茨瓦纳为其大型食肉动物群落绘制地图并确定这些区域，该群落包括狮子（Panthera leo）、豹（Panthera pardus）、斑鬣狗（Crocuta crocuta）、棕鬣狗（Hyaena brunnea）、猎豹（Acinonyx jubatus）和非洲野犬（Lycaon pictus）。大型食肉动物的栖息地适宜性主要取决于猎物可获得性、种间竞争以及与人类的冲突。猎物可获得性很可能是最强大的自然决定因素。我们利用博茨瓦纳境内六种大型食肉动物所捕食的典型野生有蹄类物种的生物量分布，来评估该国不同管理区域维持大型食肉动物种群的潜在适宜性。在大型猎物物种生物量高的区域，我们假定优势和从属竞争者之间的种间竞争激烈。这降低了这些区域对从属竞争者保护的适宜性，反之亦然。我们用总猎物和牲畜生物量中猎物生物量的百分比，来确定农业区域中潜在冲突水平高的区域。大型猎物的高至中等生物量大多局限于保护区，而小型猎物生物量在该国大部分地区分布更为均匀。这就需要针对偏好大型猎物的食肉动物以及能够在农业区域生存的食肉动物，采取不同的保护策略。为确保博茨瓦纳境内各种群之间以及与邻国之间的连通性，农业区域存在一些优先管理行动的关键区域。
