https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:37064 30-billion USD, wildlife-based tourism industry. Population monitoring is an important component of wildlife conservation. Rafiq et al. demonstrate that tourist photographs can provide cost-effective, robust measures of wildlife densities that could be used toward species conservation efforts.]]> Wed 12 Aug 2020 12:52:44 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:45295 Wed 07 Feb 2024 14:59:16 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:35959 Tue 21 Jan 2020 13:07:08 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:44585 Tue 18 Oct 2022 08:58:24 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:52566 Tue 17 Oct 2023 15:40:56 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:36892 Panthera leo) are heavily persecuted in anthropogenic landscapes. Trans-disciplinary research and virtual boundaries (geofences) programmed into GPS-tracking transmitters offer new opportunities to improve coexistence. During a 24-month pilot study (2016–2018), we alerted communities about approaching lions, issuing 1,017 alerts to four villages and 19 cattle posts. Alerts reflected geofence breaches of nine lions (2,941 monitoring days) moving between Botswana's Okavango Delta and adjacent agro-pastoral communities. Daily alert system costs per lion were US$18.54, or $5,460.24 per GPS deployment (n = 13). Alert-responsive livestock owners mainly responded by night-kraaling of cattle (68.9%), significantly reducing their losses (by $124.61 annually), whereas losses of control group and non-responsive livestock owners remained high ($317.93 annually). Community satisfaction with alerts (91.8%) was higher than for compensation of losses (24.3%). Study lions spent 26.3% of time monitored in geofenced community areas, but accounted for 31.0% of conflict. Manual alert distribution proved challenging, static geofences did not appropriately reflect human safety or the environment's strong seasonality that influenced cattle predation risk, and tracking units with on-board alert functions often failed or under-recorded geofence breaches by 27.9%. These insufficiencies prompted the design of a versatile and autonomous lion alert platform with automated, dynamic geofencing. We co-designed this prototype platform with community input, thereby incorporating user feedback. We outline a flexible approach that recognizes conflict complexity and user community heterogeneity. Here, we describe the evolution of an innovative Information and Communication Technologies-based (ICT) alert system that enables instant data processing and community participation through interactive interfaces on different devices. We highlight the importance of a trans-disciplinary co-design and development process focussing on community engagement while synthesizing expertise from ethnography, ecology, and socio-informatics. We discuss the bio-geographic, social, and technological variables that influence alert system efficacy and outline opportunities for wider application in promoting coexistence and conservation.]]> Thu 21 Oct 2021 12:52:31 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:32441 Mon 23 Sep 2019 13:26:24 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:33359 n = 427 kraal months) where lions (Panthera leo) frequently kill cattle. Monthly kraal use was 60% and was significantly influenced by kraal type, age, and shape. When used and maintained, kraals stopped livestock depredation. Due to poor maintenance, however, kraal age had a significant, negative influence on kraal use and effectiveness, compromising sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Fortified kraals built by a non-governmental organisation cost US$1322.36 per unit (n = 20) and mitigated a mean annual loss of $187.32. This suggests cost-recuperation after 7.0 years, or 2.3 times longer than observed kraal lifetime. Conversely, owner-built replicates cost $579.90 per unit (n = 4), recuperating investment after 3.1 years. Owner satisfaction was significantly higher for fortified kraals when compared with traditional kraals. However, owners of fortified kraals did not kraal their cattle more frequently than owners of traditional kraals. Regionally, the mean annual kraaling rate for 29 GPS-monitored cattle herds (n = 3360 nights) was 40%, leaving cattle vulnerable to depredation, and highlighting the importance of promoting vigilant herding together with kraaling to prevent losses. This combination could reduce regional livestock losses by 80%, or >$38,000 annually, however, kraal fortification alone does not provide a blanket solution to carnivore conflicts in Africa's agro-pastoral landscapes.]]> Mon 22 Feb 2021 16:11:52 AEDT ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:37359 Mon 15 Apr 2024 10:48:11 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:35267 Mon 08 Jul 2019 10:13:22 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:34793 Pinus sibirica and dwarf Siberian pine Pinus pumila, which produce relatively large, protein-rich seeds. In both continents, ungulates peak in the diet of bears in spring. Brown bears' preference for 10 species of ungulates increased with body mass of prey. The bear significantly preferred preying upon moose Alces alces throughout its range. Bears were the most important predator of moose and caused, on average, 23% of total natural mortality in moose populations. Brown bear preference for moose and its dominant role in moose mortality suggest an evolutionary predator¿prey relationship between these two species. Brown bears illustrate that even an apparently omnivorous predator can prefer one prey species.]]> Fri 31 May 2019 09:34:02 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:40601 hyperkeystone or super predator species as they have shown a capacity to consume animals at rates many times higher than any other non-human species. However, the extent to which humans induce adaptive defences in animals is not as clear. Systems involving large mammals may be particularly well-suited for the study of human-induced defences given that these species have been disproportionately exploited (for food and competition) over evolutionary time by humans. To begin this process we first had to examine the context in which large mammals could adaptively evolve inducible defences in relation to human lethality. With the plausibility of these conditions satisfied, we then conducted an extensive review to document the inducible defences that have been detected in large mammals. All of the 187 studies reviewed documented the behavioural plasticity of large mammals to human lethality. No morphological adaptive defences were detected. However, the extent to which the observed behavioural plasticity of large mammals is representative of adaptive inducible defences remains unclear because the fitness trade-offs (i.e. costs), an integral condition for inducible defences to evolve, were implied rather than quantified among close to 92% of this research. We make recommendations for renewed ingenuity in the development of field experiments that can quantify these costs and discuss the implications of human lethality on the ecology, conservation and management of large mammals. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.]]> Fri 22 Jul 2022 15:30:54 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:40432 Setonix brachyurus, in south-west Western Australia. We hypothesised that movement between known populations would be relatively rare and result in significant genetic structuring. Genetic analyses from 412 adult individuals at 14 nuclear markers (microsatellite) from 33 sampling locations identified structure, diversity and spatial separation of quokkas across their mainland distribution and on two islands. We identified nine inferred (K = 9) populations of quokka that would be otherwise difficult to define with standard ecological techniques. The highest genetic diversity was evident in a large central population of quokka in the southern forest area and genetic diversity was lower at the peripheries of the distribution. The Rottnest Island population contained 70% of the genetic diversity of the mainland populations but the genetic diversity of animals on Bald Island was markedly lower. Populations of quokka in the northern jarrah forest were the only ones to show evidence of recent or long-term population bottlenecking. Of particular interest was the recently identified population at the Muddy Lakes area (the only remaining locality on the Swan Coastal Plain), which was identified as being genetically associated with the southern forest population. Overall, spatial and population cluster analysis showed small insular populations in the northern jarrah forest area, but in the southern forests there appears to be a large panmictic population.]]> Fri 22 Jul 2022 14:30:34 AEST ]]> https://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:40487 Sciurus vulgaris) range within the United Kingdom (UK) has retracted significantly due to the spread of an Invasive Alien Species, the North American Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Where grey squirrels are sympatric, red squirrel populations decline through inter-specific competition and squirrelpox virus (SQPV) infection. Grey squirrel eradication from the island of Anglesey facilitated the complete restoration of native red squirrels. Although native species recovery delivered significant ecological and economic benefits, the eradication extended only to a narrow sea-channel boundary, across which grey squirrel dispersal continues to occur. Hence, the long-term sustainability of Anglesey's red squirrel population is vulnerable to grey squirrel re-establishment without continuous intervention. Recent research has demonstrated that as pine marten (Martes martes) landscape use intensity increases, so too does red squirrel occupancy, likely linked to parallel declines in grey squirrel occupancy. Restoration of this mustelid predator is a potential tool to deliver sustainable grey squirrel control by restoring a missing trophic component, depressing grey squirrel incursion rates onto Anglesey, reducing red squirrel exposure to SQPV. Recent UK pine marten translocations have sourced animals under licence from wild Scottish populations. We explore the alternative use of captive-bred founders, simultaneously introducing new genetic variability against a limited diversity within extant populations. A current conservation translocation is paired with an ongoing assessment of founder behaviour and ‘personality’ measured before release. We then highlight the multi-disciplinary approach to delivering applied red squirrel conservation programmes in the face of invasive species.]]> Fri 17 Nov 2023 11:50:39 AEDT ]]>