Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Nathan, QLD, Australia.
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.
Commun Biol. 2024 Oct 15;7(1):1308. doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-06796-0.
Regular population monitoring of imperilled charismatic species such as large carnivores is critical for conservation. However, the role of monitoring in conservation is frequently diminished due to: 1) surveys being implemented in isolation, 2) limited on-ground-capacity leading to infrequent monitoring, and 3) inappropriate methods being applied. Wildlife monitoring is often resource-intensive and the utility and cost of different field protocols is rarely reported. In this study we deployed two standard field protocols aimed at collecting data on African lions within a spatial capture-recapture framework. For our first protocol, we trained Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers in search-encounter techniques, the industry gold standard for monitoring lions. The second protocol involved deploying 32 paired stations of state-of-the-art infra-red camera traps. During the search-encounter protocol, two rangers covered 2939 km in 76 days, recording 102 detections (30 individuals) in a ~ 256 km area. The resulting density estimates (13.91 lions/100 km2, posterior SD = 2.34) yielded acceptable precision. Conversely, 64 camera traps over 1601 trap nights yielded two usable lion detections. We argue that where wildlife tourism rangers exist, they could be a powerful addition to future lion and wildlife census attempts across the continent. Our results confirm that the current technology of store-bought infra-red camera traps is not suitable for individual identification of lions, and therefore cannot be applied to analytical models that require unambiguous individual identities. However, we encourage the continued testing and advancement of infra-red camera trap technology since in many instances, this may be preferable to white-flash camera traps, which can yield individual identities for lions. Our study also shows the immense importance of the Nile Delta for African lions in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park, a protected area with both oil extraction and high rates of anthropogenic snaring pressure.
对濒危有魅力物种（如大型食肉动物）进行常规的种群监测对于保护至关重要。然而，监测在保护中的作用经常被削弱，原因有三：1）调查孤立进行，2）地面能力有限导致监测不频繁，3）应用了不适当的方法。野生动物监测通常需要大量资源，不同实地协议的效用和成本很少有报道。在这项研究中，我们部署了两种标准的实地协议，旨在在空间捕获-再捕获框架内收集关于非洲狮的数据。对于我们的第一个协议，我们培训乌干达野生动物管理局的护林员使用搜索-发现技术，这是监测狮子的行业黄金标准。第二个协议涉及部署 32 对最先进的红外相机陷阱。在搜索-发现协议中，两名护林员在 76 天内覆盖了 2939 公里，在一个约 256 公里的区域记录了 102 次发现（30 只个体）。由此产生的密度估计值（13.91 只/100 平方公里，后验标准差=2.34）具有可接受的精度。相比之下，64 个相机陷阱在 1601 个陷阱夜间只产生了两个可用的狮子检测。我们认为，在有野生动物旅游护林员的地方，他们可以成为未来整个非洲大陆狮子和野生动物普查尝试的有力补充。我们的结果证实，目前商店购买的红外相机陷阱技术不适合狮子的个体识别，因此不能应用于需要明确个体身份的分析模型。然而，我们鼓励继续测试和推进红外相机陷阱技术，因为在许多情况下，这可能比闪光灯相机陷阱更可取，闪光灯相机陷阱可以为狮子提供个体身份。我们的研究还表明，尼罗河三角洲对乌干达默奇森瀑布国家公园的非洲狮非常重要，这是一个有石油开采和高人为诱捕压力的保护区。
