Monitoring African Megafauna in an Anthropogenic Landscape: A 15-Year Case Study of the Vulnerable West African Giraffe

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41340%2F25%3A103808" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41340/25:103808 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70039" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70039</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/acv.70039" target="_blank" >10.1111/acv.70039</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Monitoring African Megafauna in an Anthropogenic Landscape: A 15-Year Case Study of the Vulnerable West African Giraffe

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Although the African continent remains rich in megafauna, around 50% are threatened with extinction by anthropogenic pressures, with West Africa showing the biggest decline. Many taxa like the West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), have suffered great range loss and population declines. Now restricted to Niger, the last West African giraffe almost exclusively lives in densely populated, agricultural area and shares its habitat with humans and their livestock. Using individual encounter history data from 15 years of annual photographic surveys (2005 – 2019), we calculated the population’s abundance, growth rate, survival, and encounter probabilities. First, we utilized pattern recognition software (HotSpotter) to clean the photographic database and correct individual encounter histories. We subsequently removed 145 double-counted ‘ghost’ individuals from 979 West African giraffe originally identified during the surveys through manual identification. Such errors and inadequate methodology caused a population overestimation of 18.9%, between 2011 and 2018. Updated encounter histories enabled us to accurately calculate abundance and demographic parameters with capture-mark-recapture (CMR) methods. By 2018, the population was estimated to have grown to 562 individuals at an average growth rate of 12%. Our results suggest that the data processing methods used in Niger have been increasingly inaccurate. We recommend changes to both monitoring and subsequent data processing to improve accuracy and effectiveness and increase the quality of conservation management decisions for the West African giraffe. Despite local threats, high survival rates and rapid population growth suggest that coexistence with humans can support the recovery of a depleted, slow-breeding megafauna species, even outside of protected areas.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Monitoring African Megafauna in an Anthropogenic Landscape: A 15-Year Case Study of the Vulnerable West African Giraffe

Popis výsledku anglicky

Although the African continent remains rich in megafauna, around 50% are threatened with extinction by anthropogenic pressures, with West Africa showing the biggest decline. Many taxa like the West African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis peralta), have suffered great range loss and population declines. Now restricted to Niger, the last West African giraffe almost exclusively lives in densely populated, agricultural area and shares its habitat with humans and their livestock. Using individual encounter history data from 15 years of annual photographic surveys (2005 – 2019), we calculated the population’s abundance, growth rate, survival, and encounter probabilities. First, we utilized pattern recognition software (HotSpotter) to clean the photographic database and correct individual encounter histories. We subsequently removed 145 double-counted ‘ghost’ individuals from 979 West African giraffe originally identified during the surveys through manual identification. Such errors and inadequate methodology caused a population overestimation of 18.9%, between 2011 and 2018. Updated encounter histories enabled us to accurately calculate abundance and demographic parameters with capture-mark-recapture (CMR) methods. By 2018, the population was estimated to have grown to 562 individuals at an average growth rate of 12%. Our results suggest that the data processing methods used in Niger have been increasingly inaccurate. We recommend changes to both monitoring and subsequent data processing to improve accuracy and effectiveness and increase the quality of conservation management decisions for the West African giraffe. Despite local threats, high survival rates and rapid population growth suggest that coexistence with humans can support the recovery of a depleted, slow-breeding megafauna species, even outside of protected areas.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

10619 - Biodiversity conservation

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Animal Conservation

ISSN

1367-9430

e-ISSN

1367-9430

Svazek periodika

2025

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

neuvedeno

Stát vydavatele periodika

GB - Spojené království Velké Británie a Severního Irska

Počet stran výsledku

14

Strana od-do

—

Kód UT WoS článku

001608325400001

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-105021248799