1,720,964 research outputs found
Human-carnivore coexistence and the responses of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) to anthropogenic activity in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
Get PDFHuman-wildlife coexistence requires rigorous, interdisciplinary evidence that promotes effective conservation and management actions. Such evidence-based approaches are conducive to coexistence between local communities and conflict-prone wildlife, such as large carnivores. Yet, little is known about the best path to gaining local community acceptance of large carnivore management strategies, the effects of anthropogenic activity on the persistence of large carnivores, and the way large carnivores interact with Threatened wildlife and local communities.
This dissertation focuses on the applied ecology and conservation of large carnivores in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tanzania, a multi-use protected area where the local Maasai community lives alongside wildlife. The three objectives of this dissertation are to: (i) identify the best predictors of the acceptance of large carnivore management strategies by local community members, (ii) assess the effects of anthropogenic activity on large carnivore fitness and physiology, and (iii) understand how large carnivores interact with Threatened wildlife and local communities in multi-use protected areas.
I use an interdisciplinary approach by combining socio-psychological data from the Maasai community with long-term data on the diet, fitness, and physiology of free-ranging spotted hyenas in the NCA. In Chapter 2, I show that emotions towards and the cultural importance of large carnivores (spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), lions (Panthera leo), and leopards (Panthera pardus)) are much stronger predictors of the acceptance of large carnivore management strategies than livestock depredation is. I also show that depredation by large carnivores is a much smaller source of livestock death than disease and drought are. I demonstrate that spotted hyenas are viewed less positively than both lions and leopards are, though invasive strategies are not accepted for all three species. The results demonstrate that conservation practitioners may focus too much on livestock depredation as the main impediment to coexistence; rather, they may need to target the respectful fostering of positive emotions through community engagement, while accounting for how different species are viewed. In Chapter 3, I investigate the effect of diurnal pastoralism on fitness and physiology in the Ngorongoro Crater spotted hyena population over a 24-year period by exploiting a natural experiment: two of the Crater’s eight spotted hyena clans were exposed to the pastoralism, while the other six were not. By directly measuring the effects of pastoralism on fitness and physiology, I quantify how an anthropogenic activity affects highly conservation-relevant traits. I found no detectable difference in juvenile recruitment (fitness) nor allostatic load (physiology) between the exposed and unexposed clans, indicating that the pastoralism had no major deleterious effect on the spotted hyenas. These results suggest that exposure to anthropogenic activity may be compatible with the persistence of group-living large carnivores, if spatiotemporal overlap between the species’ key behaviors and the activity is limited. Finally, in Chapter 4, I use fecal DNA metabarcoding to show that the Ngorongoro Crater spotted hyena population does not regularly consume the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), a Critically Endangered species. I also show that spotted hyenas at least occasionally leave the Crater to forage, based on detections of both Maasai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) and domestic animals. Furthermore, I found a positive association between spotted hyena age and the propensity to consume domestic animals, which has implications for conflict mitigation.
This dissertation sheds light on (i) the most important variables to target when seeking to gain local acceptance for large carnivore management strategies, (ii) the effects of anthropogenic activity on the fitness and physiology of large carnivores, and (iii) how large carnivores interact with Threatened wildlife and local communities in multi-use protected areas. Altogether, this dissertation is expected to provide valuable knowledge for the optimization of evidence-based large carnivore conservation and human-carnivore coexistence.Die Koexistenz von Menschen und Wildtieren erfordert gezielte, interdisziplinäre Evidenz, um effektive Schutz- und Bewirtschaftungsmaßnahmen zu etablieren. Solche evidenzbasierten Ansätze sind von zentraler Bedeutung um die Koexistenz zwischen lokalen Gemeinschaften und zu Konflikten neigenden Wildtieren, wie z. B. Großraubtieren zu verbessern. Es ist jedoch nur wenig darüber bekannt, wie die Akzeptanz der lokalen Bevölkerung für Strategien zur Bewirtschaftung von Großraubtieren am besten erreicht werden kann, welche Auswirkungen anthropogene Aktivitäten auf den Fortbestand von Großraubtieren haben und wie Großraubtiere mit bedrohten Arten und lokalen Gemeinschaften interagieren.
Diese Dissertation konzentriert sich auf die angewandte Ökologie und den Schutz Großraubtiere in der Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Tansania, eine vielseitig genutzte Landschaft, in dem die lokalen Gemeinschaften von Massai-Hirten neben Wildtieren lebt. Die drei Hauptziele der Dissertation beschäftigen sich mit: (i) der Identifizierung der besten Prädiktoren für die Akzeptanz verschiedener Managementstrategien für Großraubtiere bei Mitgliedern der lokalen Gemeinschaft, (ii) der Bestimmung des Einflusses tageszeitlicher Weidehaltung auf die Fortpflanzungserfolg und Physiologie in Gruppen lebenden Großraubtiere, (iii) verstehen wie Großraubtiere mit bedrohten Arten und lokalen Gemeinschaften in vielseitig genutzten Landschaften interagieren.
In dieser Dissertation verwende ich einen interdisziplinären Ansatz, indem ich sozio-psychologische Daten der Massai-Gemeinschaft mit Langzeitdaten über die Ernährung, Fortpflanzungserfolg und Physiologie von Tüpfelhyänen aus einer freilebenden Population in der NCA kombiniere. In Kapitel 2 zeige ich, dass die Emotionen gegenüber und die kulturelle Bedeutung von Großraubtieren (Tüpfelhyänen, Löwen (Panthera leo) und Leoparden (Panthera pardus)) weitaus mehr Einfluss auf die Akzeptanz von Managementmaßnahmen für Großraubtiere haben als es die Gefährdung von Viehbeständen hat. Ich zeige auch, dass die Verluste durch Großraubtiere eine deutlich seltenere Ursache für den Tod von Nutztieren sind als Krankheiten und Dürre. Insgesamt wurden Tüpfelhyänen weniger positiv bewertet als Löwen und Leoparden, obwohl invasive Strategien bei allen drei Arten abgelehnt wurde. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich Naturschützer möglicherweise zu sehr auf die Viehtötung als Haupthindernis für die Koexistenz konzentrieren; stattdessen wäre es möglicherweise besser sich auf eine respektvolle Stärkung positiver Emotionen durch das Engagement der Gemeinschaft zu konzentrieren und dabei zu berücksichtigen, wie die verschiedenen Arten von der lokalen Gemeinschaft angesehen werden. In Kapitel 3 untersuche ich die Auswirkungen der Tagesweidehaltung auf die Rekrutierung von Jungtieren und die allostatische Belastung der Tupfelhyänenpopulation im Ngorongoro-Krater über einen Zeitraum von 24 Jahren, indem ich ein natürliches Experiment nutze: zwei der acht Tupfelhyänen Clans im Krater waren der Weidehaltung ausgesetzt, die anderen sechs nicht. Durch die direkte Messung der Auswirkungen der Weidewirtschaft auf den Fortpflanzungserfolg und die physiologischen Merkmale quantifiziere ich, wie sich eine anthropogene Aktivität auf äußerst naturschutzrelevante Eigenschaften der Tupfelhyänen auswirkt. Ich konnte keinen nachweisbaren Unterschied bei der Rekrutierung von Jungtieren (Fitness) oder der allostatischen Belastung (Physiologie) zwischen den exponierten und den nicht exponierten Clans feststellen. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass die Weidewirtschaft keine wesentlichen nachteiligen Auswirkungen auf die Tüpfelhyänen hatte. Diese Ergebnisse lassen darauf schließen, dass die Exposition gegenüber anthropogenen Aktivitäten mit dem Fortbestand gruppenlebender Großraubtiere vereinbar sein kann, wenn die räumlich-zeitliche Überlappung zwischen den wichtigsten Verhaltensweisen der Art und den anthropogenen Aktivitäten begrenzt ist. In Kapitel 4 schließlich zeige ich anhand von fäkalen DNA-Metabarkodierungen, dass die Tüpfelhyänenpopulation im Ngorongoro-Krater nicht regelmäßig vom Aussterben bedrohte Arten wie Spitzmaulnashörner (Diceros bicornis), fressen. Basierend auf DNA-Nachweisen von Massai-Giraffen (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) und Haustieren in den Kotproben, zeige ich außerdem, dass Tüpfelhyänen zumindest gelegentlich den Krater zur Nahrungssuche verlassen. Darüber hinaus wurde ein positiver Zusammenhang zwischen dem Alter der Tupfelhyänen und der Neigung zum Verzehr von Haustieren festgestellt, was Hinweise zum für das Konfliktmanagement liefert. Diese Dissertation gibt Aufschluss über (i) die wichtigsten Variablen zur Verbesserung der lokalen Akzeptanz von Managementstrategien für Großraubtiere, (ii) die Auswirkungen anthropogener Aktivitäten auf den Fortpflanzungserfolg und Physiologie von Großraubtieren und (iii) die Art und Weise, wie Großraubtiere mit bedrohten Arten und lokalen Gemeinschaften in vielseitig genutzten Landschaften interagieren. Zusammenfassend sollte diese Dissertation wertvolles Wissen für die Optimierung des evidenzbasierten Großraubtierschutzes und die Koexistenz von lokalen Gemeinschaften und Raubtieren
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul: managing threatened predators of endangered and declining prey species
Get PDFConservation policy and practice can sometimes run counter to their mutual aims of ensuring species survival. In Kenya, where threatened predators such as lion deplete endangered prey such as Grevy’s zebra, conservation practitioners seek to ensure species success through exclusive strategies of protection, population increase and preservation. We found strong selection for the endangered Grevy’s zebra by both lion and hyena on two small fenced conservancies in Kenya. Despite abundant diversity of available prey, Grevy’s zebra were selected disproportionately more than their availability, while other highly available species such as buffalo were avoided. Lions were therefore not alone in presenting a credible threat to Grevy’s zebra survival. Conservation practitioners must consider interlinked characteristics of prey selection, resource availability and quality, the interplay between carnivore guild members and landscape scale population trends performance in wildlife management decisions
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
- …
