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Leopard Panthera pardus density and survival in an ecosystem with depressed abundance of prey and dominant competitors
- Milan A. Vinks, Scott Creel, Elias Rosenblatt, Matthew S. Becker, Paul Schuette, Ben Goodheart, Carolyn Sanguinetti, Kambwiri Banda, Clive Chifunte, Chuma Simukonda
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The leopard Panthera pardus is in range-wide decline, and many populations are highly threatened. Prey depletion is a major cause of global carnivore declines, but the response of leopard survival and density to this threat is unclear: by reducing the density of a dominant competitor (the lion Panthera leo) prey depletion could create both costs and benefits for subordinate competitors. We used capture–recapture models fitted to data from a 7-year camera-trap study in Kafue National Park, Zambia, to obtain baseline estimates of leopard population density and sex-specific apparent survival rates. Kafue is affected by prey depletion, and densities of large herbivores preferred by lions have declined more than the densities of smaller herbivores preferred by leopards. Lion density is consequently low. Estimates of leopard density were comparable to ecosystems with more intensive protection and favourable prey densities. However, our study site is located in an area with good ecological conditions and high levels of protection relative to other portions of the ecosystem, so extrapolating our estimates across the Park or into adjacent Game Management Areas would not be valid. Our results show that leopard density and survival within north-central Kafue remain good despite prey depletion, perhaps because (1) prey depletion has had weaker effects on preferred leopard prey compared to larger prey preferred by lions, and (2) the density of dominant competitors is consequently low. Our results show that the effects of prey depletion can be more complex than uniform decline of all large carnivore species, and warrant further investigation.
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- By Krista Adamek, Ana Luisa K. Albernaz, J. Marcio Ayres†, Andrew J. Baker, Karen L. Bales, Adrian A. Barnett, Christopher Barton, John M. Bates, Jennie Becker, Bruna M. Bezerra, Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Richard Bodmer, Jean P. Boubli, Mark Bowler, Sarah A. Boyle, Christini Barbosa Caselli, Janice Chism, Elena P. Cunningham, José Maria C. da Silva, Lesa C. Davies, Nayara de Alcântara Cardoso, Manuella A. de Souza, Stella de la Torre, Ana Gabriela de Luna, Thomas R. Defler, Anthony Di Fiore, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque, Stephen F. Ferrari, Wilsea M.B. Figueiredo-Ready, Tracy Frampton, Paul A. Garber, Brian W. Grafton, L. Tremaine Gregory, Maria L. Harada, Amy Harrison-Levine, Walter C. Hartwig, Stefanie Heiduck, Eckhard W. Heymann, André Hirsch, Leandro Jerusalinsky, Gareth Jones, Richard F. Kay, Martin M. Kowalewski, Shawn M. Lehman, Laura Marsh, Jesús Martinez, William A. Mason, Hope Matthews, Wynlyn McBride, Shona McCann-Wood, W. Scott McGraw, D. Jeffrey Meldrum, Sally P. Mendoza, Nohelia Mercado, Russell A. Mittermeier, Mirjam N. Nadjafzadeh, Marilyn A. Norconk, Robert Gary Norman, Marcela Oliveira, Marcelo M. Oliveira, Maria Juliana Ospina Rodríguez, Erwin Palacios, Suzanne Palminteri, Liliam P. Pinto, Marcio Port-Carvalho, Leila Porter, Carlos Portillo-Quintero, George Powell, Ghillean T. Prance, Rodrigo C. Printes, Pablo Puertas, P. Kirsten Pullen, Helder L. Queiroz, Luis Reginaldo R. Rodrigues, Adriana Rodríguez, Alfred L. Rosenberger, Anthony B. Rylands, Ricardo R. Santos, Horacio Schneider, Eleonore Z.F. Setz, Suleima S.B. Silva, José S. Silva Júnior, Andrew T. Smith, Marcelo C. Sousa, Antonio S. Souto, Wilson R. Spironello, Masanaru Takai, Marcelo F. Tejedor, Cynthia L. Thompson, Diego G. Tirira, Raul Tupayachi, Bernardo Urbani, Liza M. Veiga, Marianela Velilla, João Valsecchi, Jean-Christophe Vié, Tatiana M. Vieira, Suzanne E. Walker-Pacheco, Rob Wallace, Patricia C. Wright, Charles E. Zartman
- Edited by Liza M. Veiga, Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil, Adrian A. Barnett, Roehampton University, London, Stephen F. Ferrari, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil, Marilyn A. Norconk, Kent State University, Ohio
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- Evolutionary Biology and Conservation of Titis, Sakis and Uacaris
- Published online:
- 05 April 2013
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- 11 April 2013, pp xii-xv
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- By Dag Aarsland, Adrià Arboix, Carlos Bazán, James T. Becker, Sylvie Belleville, Kevin M. Biglan, Sandra E. Black, Mariana Blanco, Rémi W. Bouchard, Bruce J. Brew, David J. Burn, Leonardo Caixeta, Richard Camicioli, Paulo Caramelli, Neil Cashman, Nicholas W. S. Davies, Yan Deschaintre, Rachel S. Doody, Bruno Dubois, Uwe Ehrt, Stephane Epelbaum, Ryan V. V. Evans, Joseph M. Ferrara, Bruno Franchi, Morris Freedman, Anders Gade, Serge Gauthier, Marta Grau-Olivares, Matthew E. Growdon, Will Guest, Marie Christie Guiot, Shahul Hameed, Mirna Lie Hosogi-Senaha, Ging-Yuek Robin Hsiung, Masamichi Ikawa, Rajive Jassal, Vesna Jelic, Peter Johannsen, Edward S. Johnson, Mary M. Kenan, Bert-Jan Kerklaan, Benjamin Lam, Gabriel C. Léger, Gabriel Leonard, Emilie Lepage, Irene Litvan, Oscar L. Lopez, Ian R. A. Mackenzie, Mario Masellis, Fodi Massoud, Paige Moorhouse, John C. Morris, Taim Muayqil, Yannick Nadeau, Inger Nennesmo, Jørgen E. Nielsen, Ricardo Nitrini, Sven-Eric Pålhagen, Robert Perry, Gerald Pfeffer, Machiel Pleizier, Steffen Plickert, Gil D. Rabinovici, Philippe H. Robert, Lothar Resch, Gustavo C. Román, Maxime Ros, Pedro Rosa-Neto, Aiman Sanosi, Philip Scheltens, Christian Schmidt, Eric Schmidt, Jean-Paul Soucy, Jette Stokholm, David Summers, Rawan Tarawneh, Louis Verret, Huali Wang, Bengt Winblad, Makoto Yoneda, Xin Yu, Inga Zerr
- Edited by Serge Gauthier, McGill University, Montréal, Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Montréal
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- Book:
- Case Studies in Dementia
- Published online:
- 16 May 2011
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- 21 April 2011, pp viii-xiv
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