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High carnivore population density highlights the conservation value of industrialised sites

View ORCID ProfileDaan J. E. Loock, View ORCID ProfileSamual T. Williams, View ORCID ProfileKevin W. Emslie, Wayne S. Matthews, View ORCID ProfileLourens H. Swanepoel
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/260729
Daan J. E. Loock
aFaculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Park West, Bloemfontein, 930, South Africa
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Samual T. Williams
bDepartment of Zoology, School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa
cDepartment of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
dInstitute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education (IGDORE)
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  • For correspondence: samual.t.williams@gmail.com
Kevin W. Emslie
bDepartment of Zoology, School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa
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Wayne S. Matthews
eDepartment of Environmental Sciences, College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, University of South Africa, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria, 0003, South Africa
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Lourens H. Swanepoel
bDepartment of Zoology, School of Mathematical & Natural Sciences, University of Venda, Private Bag X5050, Thohoyandou, 0950, South Africa
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Abstract

As the environment becomes increasingly altered by human development, the importance of understanding the ways in which wildlife interact with modified landscapes is becoming clear. Areas such as industrial sites are sometimes presumed to have little conservation value, but many of these sites have areas of less disturbed habitats around their core infrastructure, which could provide ideal conditions to support some species, such as mesocarnivores. We conducted the first assessments of the density of serval (Leptailurus serval) at the Secunda Synfuels Operations plant, South Africa. We ran three camera trap surveys to estimate serval density using a spatially explicit capture recapture framework. Servals occurred at densities of 76.20-101.21 animals per 100 km2, which are the highest recorded densities for this species, presumably due to high abundance of prey and the absence of persecution and/or competitor species. Our findings highlight the significant conservation potential of industrialised sites, and we suggest that such sites could help contribute towards meeting conservation goals.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 27, 2018.
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High carnivore population density highlights the conservation value of industrialised sites
Daan J. E. Loock, Samual T. Williams, Kevin W. Emslie, Wayne S. Matthews, Lourens H. Swanepoel
bioRxiv 260729; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/260729
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High carnivore population density highlights the conservation value of industrialised sites
Daan J. E. Loock, Samual T. Williams, Kevin W. Emslie, Wayne S. Matthews, Lourens H. Swanepoel
bioRxiv 260729; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/260729

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