FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa.
School of Biological Sciences, Zoology Building, University of Aberdeen, Tillydrone Avenue, Aberdeen, AB24 2TZ, UK.
Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 19;10(1):1094. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09044-w.
Identifying patterns of wildlife crime is a major conservation challenge. Here, we test whether deaths or disappearances of a protected species, the hen harrier, are associated with grouse moors, which are areas managed for the production of red grouse for recreational shooting. Using data from 58 satellite tracked hen harriers, we show high rates of unexpected tag failure and low first year survival compared to other harrier populations. The likelihood of harriers dying or disappearing increased as their use of grouse moors increased. Similarly, at the landscape scale, satellite fixes from the last week of life were distributed disproportionately on grouse moors in comparison to the overall use of such areas. This pattern was also apparent in protected areas in northern England. We conclude that hen harriers in Britain suffer elevated levels of mortality on grouse moors, which is most likely the result of illegal killing.
确定野生动物犯罪的模式是一个主要的保护挑战。在这里，我们测试了受保护物种——红腹锦鸡的死亡或消失是否与松鸡牧场有关，松鸡牧场是为了生产红腹锦鸡以供娱乐射击而管理的区域。利用来自 58 只卫星跟踪红腹锦鸡的数据，我们发现与其他锦鸡种群相比，红腹锦鸡的标签意外失效率很高，第一年的生存率很低。红腹锦鸡在松鸡牧场的使用量增加，其死亡或消失的可能性就越大。同样，在景观尺度上，生命最后一周的卫星定位点在松鸡牧场的分布不成比例，而这些区域的整体使用率却不成比例。在英格兰北部的保护区也出现了这种模式。我们的结论是，英国的红腹锦鸡在松鸡牧场遭受了更高水平的死亡率，这很可能是非法杀戮的结果。
