RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 High carnivore population density highlights the conservation value of industrialised sites
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 260729
DO 10.1101/260729
A1 Daan J. E. Loock
A1 Samual T. Williams
A1 Kevin W. Emslie
A1 Wayne S. Matthews
A1 Lourens H. Swanepoel
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/03/27/260729.abstract
AB 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.