IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Funston, P.; Hanssen, L.; Moeller, M. | |
| Large Carnivore Survey Bwabwata National Park, Namibia, July 2014 | |
| 2014 Full Book | |
Although determining the abundance of large carnivores is inherently challenging (Balme, Hunter & Slotow 2009), knowing the size of large carnivore populations in protected areas is invaluable in guiding strategic conservation action and management decisions (Mills 1991). If repeated over time, surveys provide estimates of trends, which in large carnivore studies are often difficult to achieve, but are invaluable for conservation managers (Packer et al. 2005, 2011). Moreover, large carnivore density trends are a reflection of prey densities and anthropogenic influences and therefore serve respectively as a useful indicator of ecological health and human impact. Thus the survey techniques chosen for large carnivores should ideally be cost effective, efficient and repeatable, especially if the goal is to achieve time series or trend data. Although camera-trap surveys (Karanth & Nichols 1998) and call-up surveys (Ogutu & Dublin 1998; Mills, Juritz & Zucchini 2001; Ferreira & Funston 2010) are very effective survey methods, they do have constraints when working with the guild of large carnivores. Camera trapping only works for individually recognizable species that can be readily photographed (e.g. leopards and spotted hyaenas) or known individuals, while call-up surveys are limited to only estimating densities of lions and spotted hyaenas. Furthermore camera trap surveys are expensive in terms of the equipment required and take a long time to complete over large areas, especially in areas where carnivores occur at low densities. Several studies have identified strong linear relationships between large carnivore density and track-based abundance indices derived from spoor transects, (Stander 1998; Houser, Somers & Boast 2009; Funston et al. 2010). Thus spoor transects are a robust means to predicting large carnivore densities, especially in areas with suitable sandy substrate and provided suitably skilled trackers are available (Stander et al. 1997). The first ever-comprehensive large carnivore survey of the Bwabwata National Park (BNP) was conducted in July 2014 using the spoor transect method during a collaboration between Kwando Carnivore Project, MET, Panthera and Kyaramacan Association. |
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