Search

Communities living adjacent to protected areas tend to express more willingness to coexist with large carnivores in their areas when they receive tangible benefits. The aim of this study was to explore people’s willingness to coexist with large carnivores, including lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) and black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas schmidti). The authors used a pre-test and post-test approach by implementing a chemoprophylactic program as a conservation incentive among the Maasai and Sonjo tribes living in the eastern Serengeti, Tanzania. Chemoprophylaxis is the prevention of infectious disease by using chemical agents. The pre-test results showed that both tribes had low willingness to coexist with these large carnivores. Of the two tribes, the Sonjo tribe was less willing than the Maasai tribe. Our post-test results indicated an increase in willingness to coexist with large carnivores in their area because the livestock loss due to large carnivore depredation was significantly lower than that caused by diseases in both tribes. Therefore, this study calls for more conservation incentives to local people to promote their willingness to coexist with large carnivores in their areas. Key words: Coexistence, depredation, diseases, large carnivores, livestock, Maasai and Sonjo tribes.

We randomly selected 200 households from the four villages (50 per village) based on the household distance from the park: villages settled close to the park and villages settled further away from the park. Besides, qualitative methods including focus group discussions and direct observations, were used. Community activities differed between the two groups of villages (close and far from the park). Furthermore, local communities benefited directly and indirectly from employment, ecotourism, and support through social services. Education level was a significant factor influencing the perception of the benefits gained from the park. Crop raiding was the biggest problem reported by most people in the study area (31.5%, n = 200), followed by livestock losses. This study revealed that the establishment and expansion of a protected area can have positive and negative socio-economic, cultural, and political impacts on the livelihoods of local people. Households close to the park had little access to land; thus, few of them practiced agricultural activities and had crop production incomes. The needs of local people and poverty alleviation should be considered as important factors during the planning and designation of protected areas (PAs) in order to meet conservation and livelihood goals. The objective of the present study was to assess the perceptions of impact of PAs on the livelihoods of local people in terms of costs and benefits in the area adjacent to Saadani National Park in Tanzania with those not adjacent to Saadani NP. Key words: Attitudes benefit sharing, livelihood, local communities, protected areas.

Carrion represents an unpredictable and widely distributed primary food source for vultures and other avian scavengers. Avian scavengers in African savanna ecosystems are reported to rely exclusively on visual stimuli to locate carcasses. However, carnivores’ predation of large mammalian herbivores and subsequent competition for access to the carcass can result in considerable noise, often audible over long distances and for prolonged periods. Vultures and other avian scavengers may therefore detect and respond to these auditory cues, as do the mammalian carnivores alongside which vultures have coevolved, but this has not been investigated to date. Working in the Serengeti ecosystem, Tanzania, we used diurnal auditory broadcasts to simulate predation and competitive carnivore feeding interactions. Based on the current understanding of avian scavenger ecology, we hypothesized that avian responses to call‐in stations would be evoked exclusively by visual, rather than auditory, cues. We therefore predicted that (a) the arrival of avian scavengers at call‐in stations should be preceded and facilitated by mammalian carnivores and that (b) the arrival of avian scavengers would be positively correlated with the number of mammalian scavengers present, which would increase detectability. We recorded 482 birds during 122 separate playback events. In 22% of these instances, avian scavengers arrived first, ruling out responses based exclusively on visual observations of mammalian carnivores, thereby contradicting our first prediction. Furthermore, the first avian arrivals at survey sessions were inversely related to the number of hyenas and jackals present, contradicting our second prediction. Since no bait or carcasses were used during the experiments, these responses are indicative of the birds’ ability to detect and respond to audio stimuli. Our findings challenge the current consensus of sensory perception and foraging in these species and provide evidence that avian scavengers have the ability to use sound to locate food resources., Avian scavengers in African savanna ecosystems are reported to rely exclusively on visual stimuli to locate carcasses. Here, we report on the response of vultures and other avian scavengers to auditory cues indicative of foraging opportunities. Based on our findings, we hypothesize that these birds are able to utilize auditory cues while foraging.

Many animal populations are exposed to disturbance originating from human activities. In response to human disturbance, certain animals display a variety of potentially costly behavioural responses, such as increased antipredator behaviour or relocation to new areas. In contrast, other animals seemingly thrive in the presence of humans and benefit from human‐derived resources. Flight initiation distance (FID: the distance between predator and prey when prey starts to flee) is a measure commonly used to assess animals’ tolerance to humans. In this study, we tested how FID changes in relation to human presence in two hyrax species in Serengeti National Park. Hyraxes living on kopjes (rock outcrops) among human settlements showed a significantly shorter FID than hyraxes living on kopjes without human settlements. In addition, we found that hyraxes feeding before the experiment had shorter FID than hyraxes resting or being vigilant, and hyraxes disturbed during the early morning had shorter FID than hyraxes disturbed during late morning. We did not find any significant effects of group size or species composition on FID. Our results suggest that hyraxes living in the presence of humans are habituated and are not adversely affected by human settlements. © 2019 The Authors. Ethology published by Blackwell Verlag GmbH This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The understanding of how educational and spatial factors influence appreciation of conservation benefits to locals living adjacent to protected areas is a very important aspect in conservation initiatives. In this study we compared how educational and spatial factors affect the appreciation of conservation benefits to local communities adjoining the two Tanzanian national parks; Tarangire National Park (TNP) and Saadani National Park (SANAPA). Questionnaire surveys including closed-ended questions were conducted in eight villages, four near each of the two parks. A total of 400 randomly selected households were interviewed (50 in each village). Results from these questionnaires showed that the local people’s appreciation of benefits was negatively related to increasing distance from the parks boundaries. Moreover, people with secondary education or higher, appreciated to receive more benefits than those with primary and tended to appreciate benefits more often than those with no formal education. In addition, people living around TNP responded that the park itself benefited more in terms of benefits from tourism compared to communities surrounding SANAPA. The underlying mechanisms for establishing strong relationships, e.g., by initiating conservation benefits close to national parks, is key to improve views on conservation practices from local people surrounding national parks.

Understanding the factors affecting a species’ population size is crucial for conservation initiatives. Hyraxes are small, gregarious animals, predominantly found on kopjes (rock outcrops) and thus form metapopulation communities. In Tanzania, two species of hyraxes inhabit Serengeti National Park, the rock hyrax Procavia capensis johnstoni and bush hyrax Heterohyrax brucei. This study focuses on the factors that affect hyrax population size, including factors such as human presence, habitat type, kopje size and kopje height. We found that larger and taller kopjes tended to have more hyraxes than smaller ones, while kopjes in wooded grassland had more hyraxes than kopjes in grassland. Human presence often affects species negatively, but in the case of hyraxes, we found that kopjes with human presence had larger populations than kopjes without humans. We discuss possible explanations for this and suggest that human presence is related to fewer predators and higher food availability.

Human-carnivore encounters are common where humans and wild carnivores share the same landscape. The frequency of such encounters gives insight regarding carnivore density and might correlate with human-carnivore conflict incidences. We interviewed livestock owners in the eastern Serengeti ecosystem and recorded reported carnivore presence and relative abundance. We simultaneously conducted a carnivore survey to assess the potential variability of reported carnivore presence that was recorded during the surveys. The playback surveys attracted 9 lions (Panthera leo), 88 spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) and 47 black-backed jackals (Canis mesomelas schmidti) to 12 call-in stations which were resurveyed three times (36 playbacks in total). Reported encounters with lions, leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), spotted hyenas, African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) and jackals were higher closer to the Serengeti National Park (SNP). Data from carnivore surveys were positively correlated with what people reported in questionnaires. These results indicate that local reports of encounters with wild carnivores may act as an important indicator of carnivore presence. Combining observational data through surveys with data reported by local people in areas where humans and wild carnivores coexist may improve existing data on carnivore abundance and distribution in such areas. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

We used a four-day program with a pre-test–post-test approach on 355 selected school children to investigate the influence of a wildlife education project on the acquisition of knowledge about large carnivores in Loliondo, Tanzania. After the school program was completed, a significantly higher number of school children correctly identified six carnivore species, compared to when the same identification task was administered prior to the initiation of the school program. This increased knowledge is important for the conservation of large carnivores in general and of African wild dogs, in particular, because the post-test results showed that most school children considered wild dogs to be an important part of the ecosystem. In areas experiencing human– carnivore conflict, it is important to include conservation education programs in school curricula as early as possible to enable students to gain knowledge of large carnivores and their role in ecosystems.

Livestock losses caused by wild carnivores foster negative attitudes and promote retaliatory killings, threatening the future of carnivore populations. Measures to bring about coexistence between humans and carnivores are of great importance to carnivore conservation. The study questionnaire survey involved 180 respondents from Eastern Serengeti tribes (Maasai and Sonjo), all of which owned livestock. Reported livestock depredation in 2016 by the Maasai tribe (pastoralists) was higher than that by the Sonjo tribe (agropastoralists) because the Maasai own many livestock and live closer to the Serengeti National Park boundary. Most livestock depredation occurred during the day when livestock were out feeding and during the dry season. Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) were the most commonly reported carnivore responsible for livestock depredation. Livestock depredation caused by lions (Panthera leo) and cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) was only reported by the Maasai tribe. Leopards (Panthera pardus), jackals (Canis spp.), and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) were responsible for more livestock depredation of the Maasai livestock. A similar study was performed six years earlier, in 2010. Therefore, this study brings insight to the temporal changes of livestock depredation patterns and changes of carnivorous species causing livestock depredation in the Eastern Serengeti ecosystem. The Maasai and Sonjo are the main tribes living in the Eastern Serengeti ecosystem. The Maasai preferably use knives and/or spears, whereas the Sonjo use bows and poisoned arrows to protect their livestock against depredation by wild carnivores, and both tribes prefer the use of multiple techniques to increase the efficiency of livestock protection. Key words: Boma, herding, Maasai, preferences, Sonjo, tribe, weapons.