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  • Communication hubs of an asocial cat are the source of a human - carnivore conflict and key to its solution
    Melzheimer, Joerg ...
    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 (Acinonyx jubatus) 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.
    Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - ISSN 0027-8424 (Vol. 117, iss. 52, 2020, str. 33325-33333)
    Type of material - article, component part
    Publish date - 2020
    Language - english
    COBISS.SI-ID - 43724035

    Link(s):

    https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002487117
    Repository of the University of Ljubljana – RUL
    DOI

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