Department of Botany & Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.
The Cape Leopard Trust, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
PeerJ. 2023 Jan 25;11:e14575. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14575. eCollection 2023.
Apex predators ideally require vast intact spaces that support sufficient prey abundances to sustain them. In a developing world, however, it is becoming extremely difficult to maintain large enough areas to facilitate apex predators outside of protected regions. Free-roaming leopards () are the last remaining apex predator in the Greater Cape Floristic Region, South Africa, and face a multitude of threats attributable to competition for space and resources with humans. Using camera-trap data, we investigated the influence of anthropogenic land modification on leopards and the availability of their natural prey species in two contrasting communities-primarily protected (Cederberg) and agriculturally transformed (Piketberg). Potential prey species composition and diversity were determined, to indicate prey availability in each region. Factors influencing spatial utilisation by leopards and their main prey species were also assessed. Estimated potential prey species richness (Cederberg = 27, Piketberg = 26) and diversity indices (Cederberg- = 2.64, = 0.90; Piketberg- = 2.46, = 0.89), supported by both the Jaccard's Index ( = 0.73) and Sørensen's Coefficient ( = 0.85), suggested high levels of similarity across the two regions. Main leopard prey species were present in both regions, but their relative abundances differed. Grey rhebok, klipspringer, and rock hyrax were more abundant in the Cederberg, while Cape grysbok, Cape porcupine, chacma baboon, and common duiker were more abundant in Piketberg. Leopards persisted across the agriculturally transformed landscape despite these differences. Occupancy modelling revealed that the spatial dynamics of leopards differed between the two regions, except for both populations preferring areas further away from human habitation. Overall, anthropogenic factors played a greater role in affecting spatial utilisation by leopards and their main prey species in the transformed region, whereas environmental factors had a stronger influence in the protected region. We argue that greater utilisation of alternative main prey species to those preferred in the protected region, including livestock, likely facilitates the persistence of leopards in the transformed region, and believe that this has further implications for human-wildlife conflict. Our study provides a baseline understanding of the potential direct and indirect impacts of agricultural landscape transformation on the behaviour of leopards and shows that heavily modified lands have the potential to facilitate mammalian diversity, including apex predators. We iterate that conservation measures for apex predators should be prioritised where they are present on working lands, and encourage the collaborative development of customised, cost-effective, multi-species conflict management approaches that facilitate coexistence.
顶级掠食者理想情况下需要广阔完整的空间，以支持足够数量的猎物来维持它们的生存。然而，在发展中国家，维持足够大的区域以容纳保护区以外的顶级掠食者变得极其困难。游荡的豹（）是南非大卡鲁植物区系地区仅剩的顶级掠食者，它们面临着与人类争夺空间和资源的多种威胁。本研究利用相机陷阱数据，调查了人类对土地的改造对豹及其主要猎物在两个截然不同的社区（主要是保护区[Cederberg]和农业转型区[Piketberg]）中的影响。确定了潜在猎物物种的组成和多样性，以表明每个地区的猎物可利用性。还评估了影响豹及其主要猎物空间利用的因素。估计的潜在猎物物种丰富度（Cederberg=27，Piketberg=26）和多样性指数（Cederberg-=2.64，=0.90；Piketberg-=2.46，=0.89），支持这两个指数的是杰卡德指数（=0.73）和索伦森系数（=0.85），表明这两个地区之间存在高度相似性。两个地区都存在主要的豹类猎物，但它们的相对丰度不同。灰色岩羚、跳羚和岩蹄兔在 Cederberg 地区更为丰富，而海角林羚、海角豚鼠、狒狒和普通大羚羊在 Piketberg 地区更为丰富。尽管存在这些差异，豹类仍在农业转型景观中得以存活。栖息地占有模型显示，除了两个种群都更喜欢远离人类居住的地区外，豹类在两个地区的空间动态存在差异。总体而言，在转型地区，人为因素对豹类及其主要猎物的空间利用的影响更大，而在保护区，环境因素的影响更强。我们认为，在转型地区，更多地利用保护区中不喜欢的主要猎物物种，包括家畜，可能有助于豹类的生存，并且相信这对人与野生动物的冲突有进一步的影响。我们的研究提供了对农业景观转型对豹类行为的直接和间接影响的基本了解，并表明高度改造的土地有可能促进哺乳动物多样性，包括顶级掠食者。我们强调，应优先在工作土地上保护顶级掠食者，并鼓励制定定制的、具有成本效益的、多物种冲突管理方法，以促进共存。
