Publication
Title
Divergent trends of large carnivore populations within the Benoue Complex, North Cameroon, shown by long-term fine-scale monitoring
Author
Abstract
Large carnivore populations have suffered declines worldwide. For the African continent, these have been particularly strong in West and Central Africa. The Benoue Complex in North Cameroon, located in Central Africa, is a key landscape for their conservation. We determined spatiotemporal trends in lion (Panthera leo), leopard (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) abundance, using repeated spoor counts on transects from 2007 to 2015. Results of the temporal analysis indicate that lion and spotted hyaena abundance reduced over time across the complex, whereas leopards only declined in the last 2 years and primarily in the Faro Block. From the spatial analysis, it became clear spoor abundances differ between areas within the Benoue Complex and between management types: Spoor densities were especially higher in Bouba Ndjida National Park and the hunting zones around Faro. This effect is most probably related to a more effective management strategy in these areas. Our fine-scale long-term monitoring technique provides a low-cost, easy to implement, multi-scale and effective tool for the identification of both regional and range-wide carnivore conservation hotspots.
Language
English
Source (journal)
European journal of wildlife research. - Berlin
Publication
Berlin : 2020
ISSN
1612-4642
DOI
10.1007/S10344-020-01420-Y
Volume/pages
66 :5 (2020) , 7 p.
Article Reference
82
ISI
000567879400001
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 19.10.2020
Last edited 13.11.2024
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