Spatio-temporal overlap between leopard and potential prey

Karolina Mikslová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Predator – prey interactions in space and time are fundamental in understanding the ecology of species in given environment. Leopard Panthera pardus plays the role of apex predator in the KumKum Farm located in Nama-Karoo biome in south-eastern Namibia. Leopards living in these dry mountainous areas are known to hunt mainly klipspringers and rock hyraxes from studies conducted in South Africa. First aim of this survey was to evaluate availability of potential prey species and their spatial distribution within the study area. Secondly, we evaluated habitat use and spatio-temporal interactions between leopards and the potential prey species. We assessed spatial distribution and temporal activity pattern of leopard and potential prey species in the area of 225 km2 through 20 camera trap stations. To increase our data sample for more spatial and habitat data we conducted 20 transects in the surroundings of camera traps and recorded direct and indirect observations in Cyber Tracker. Data were collected for two months in the dry winter season and were further analyzed in ZSL Camera Trap Analyses Tool and ArcGIS Software. Our results suggest that klipspringers and hyraxes are the main potential prey species of leopard in the area. They were the most abundant potential prey species of leopards on the KumKum Farm and both species showed highest spatial overlap with the leopard than other species. Klipspringers and hyraxes occurred mostly in rocky plains and slopes habitat as well as leopards did.Leopards in the Karoo and especially along Orange River are still poorly studied. Studying their specific ecology and interactions with prey are important for future wildlife management decisions and also in the broader context of the leopard-farmers conflict which extent in the region has yet not been evaluated.

Keywords

Panthera pardus, camera trap survey, cyber tracker, predator-prey space race, habitat use

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 26. 4. 2019

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: doc. Ing. Karolína Brandlová, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme / odbor:
Tropical Agriculture / Wildlife Management in the Tropics and Subtropics