Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany;
Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, 10315 Berlin, Germany.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 29;117(52):33325-33333. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2002487117. Epub 2020 Dec 7.
Human-wildlife conflicts occur worldwide. Although many nonlethal mitigation solutions are available, they rarely use the behavioral ecology of the conflict species to derive effective and long-lasting solutions. Here, we use a long-term study with 106 GPS-collared free-ranging cheetahs () to demonstrate how new insights into the socio-spatial organization of this species provide the key for such a solution. GPS-collared territory holders marked and defended communication hubs (CHs) in the core area of their territories. The CHs/territories were distributed in a regular pattern across the landscape such that they were not contiguous with each other but separated by a surrounding matrix. They were kept in this way by successive territory holders, thus maintaining this overdispersed distribution. The CHs were also visited by nonterritorial cheetah males and females for information exchange, thus forming hotspots of cheetah activity and presence. We hypothesized that the CHs pose an increased predation risk to young calves for cattle farmers in Namibia. In an experimental approach, farmers shifted cattle herds away from the CHs during the calving season. This drastically reduced their calf losses by cheetahs because cheetahs did not follow the herds but instead preyed on naturally occurring local wildlife prey in the CHs. This implies that in the cheetah system, there are "problem areas," the CHs, rather than "problem individuals." The incorporation of the behavioral ecology of conflict species opens promising areas to search for solutions in other conflict species with nonhomogenous space use.
人与野生动物冲突在全球范围内都有发生。尽管有许多非致命的缓解解决方案，但它们很少利用冲突物种的行为生态学来得出有效和持久的解决方案。在这里，我们使用一项对 106 只佩戴 GPS 项圈的自由放养猎豹（）进行的长期研究，证明了如何利用对该物种社会空间组织的新认识来提供这样的解决方案。佩戴 GPS 项圈的领地持有者会在其领地的核心区域标记和保护通讯枢纽（CHs）。CHs/领地在景观中呈规则分布，彼此不相连，而是由周围的基质隔开。这种分布方式是由连续的领地持有者维持的，从而保持了这种过度分散的分布。非领地的猎豹雄性和雌性也会访问 CHs 进行信息交流，从而形成猎豹活动和存在的热点。我们假设，CHs 对纳米比亚的牛场主来说，增加了对小牛的捕食风险。在一项实验方法中，农民在产犊季节将牛群从 CHs 移开。这大大减少了猎豹对小牛的损失，因为猎豹没有跟随牛群，而是在 CHs 中捕食当地野生动物。这意味着在猎豹系统中，存在“问题区域”（CHs），而不是“问题个体”。将冲突物种的行为生态学纳入其中，为其他非均匀空间利用的冲突物种寻找解决方案开辟了有前景的领域。
