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Large carnivores are key drivers of ecosystem structure and function, yet their populations are declining worldwide. African lion ( Panthera leo) populations have decreased significantly in recent decades with an estimated 23 000 lions left in Africa. Successful conservation efforts rely on a sound understanding of how animals utilize their surrounding habitat. We used movement data from GPS collars to investigate patterns and drivers of seasonal space use by free-roaming lions in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (GM-TFCA). We developed individual and population-level resource utilization functions (RUF) from 2008 to 2015. RUFs relate non-uniform space use within a home range to landscape metrics in a multiple regression framework.We identified six landscape features hypothesized a priorito be good predictors of lion space use: land use, land cover, elevation, terrain ruggedness, distance to human settlements and rivers. Only elevation during the dry season was a significant factor detected for lion space use (â ± S.E.) (-0.278 ± 0.107, CI = -0.4881, -0.0676). Across seasons, lions varied in their avoidance of human settlements, but 12 of 18 (67%) individuals selected areas within their home ranges that were farther from human settlements. Lionsmoved randomly across the landscape independent of vegetation type regardless of season. In season-specific analyses, some lions avoided human settlements (dry season: 45%, [ n= 10] utilized areas farther from settlements; wet season: 50% [ n= 9]). The lack of avoidance of settlements by some lions in our study also confirms that individual variation among lions can lead to human--wildlife conflicts. Perhaps the most critical observation from our study is that individual lions acted very differently as they used the landscape, which suggests the need for management plans to be landscape and case-specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African lion Panthera leo populations have declined as a result of various anthropogenic factors, and most extant populations are small, which further compromises their persistence. Lions in unfenced areas are more exposed to illegal hunting, snaring and poisoning, and populations in fenced reserves are subject to population control by removal of selected individuals from particular age and sex classes. During 2000–2011 19 lions from the mostly unfenced Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana were shot, snared or poisoned. By contrast, only one lioness was shot outside the fenced Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve 10 km away, in South Africa, where 29 lions were trophy hunted or culled. We found that the mean population size, sex ratio and litter size were the same for both reserves but population density, pride size and cub survival rate were significantly higher in the fenced reserve. The size of the population in Northern Tuli was constrained by a high rate of indiscriminate anthropogenic mortality, with 94.7% of adult mortality occurring outside the reserve. The different forms of anthropogenic suppression in evidence at the two reserves resulted in different population-level responses, which will ultimately affect population viability. As conservation strategies are attempting to remove fences and establish larger conservation areas, this study indicates how fences can influence population dynamics in areas where human presence threatens large carnivores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-wildlife conflict and habitat loss are threatening carnivore populations in southern Africa, where the bulk of research focuses on large predators. However, scant research exists on medium and small carnivore (mesocarnivore) ecology. We employed hierarchical community modelling to estimate the effect of habitat on species occurrence and the effect of bait on detection probabilities for the carnivore community in the Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.We tested sites baited with either impala (Aepyceros melampus) meat (meat sites) or cheesecloth soaked in used cooking fat (fat rag sites) against unbaited sites (control sites). Within each bait classification, we divided our sampling effort between two habitat classifications, riverine and non-riverine sites. Thirteen of 16 carnivore species inhabiting the area (81%), including 10 of 12 species of mesocarnivore (83%), were recorded. Occupancy rates were higher in riverine habitat for several species, in particular African civet (Civettictis civetta), brown hyaena (Hyaena brunnea), and large-spotted genet (Genetta tigrina), demonstrating the importance of riverine habitat, which is declining in the study region. Our results suggest that the use of bait improves detectability. Several large carnivores, including spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta), brown hyaena, and leopard (Panthera pardus), were detected at highest rates at meat sites. Many mesocarnivores, including black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) and African civet responded equally to meat and fat rag sites, with detections greater than at control sites. Notably, large-spotted genet showed highest detection rates at fat rag sites, and brown hyaena showed higher rates at fat rag sites than control sites. Our detection results indicate that spent cooking fat may be used as an effective bait alternative to meat when studying mesocarnivore communities in southern Africa, whereas meat may still be the most effective for studying large carnivore communities. Identifying effective methods of increasing detection rates will benefit carnivore survey and monitoring initiatives, especially for cryptic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of survival rates is important for developing and evaluating conservation options for large carnivores. However, telemetry studies for large carnivores are often characterized by small sample sizes that limit meaningful conclusions. We used data from 10 published and 8 unpublished studies of leopards Panthera pardus in southern Africa to estimate survival rates and investigate causes of leopard mortality. Mean survival rates were significantly lower in non-protected (0.55 ± SE 0.08) compared to protected areas (0.88 ± 0.03). Inside protected areas juveniles had significantly lower survival (0.39 ± 0.10) compared to subadults (0.86 ± 0.07) and adults (0.88 ± 0.04). There was a greater difference in cause of death between protected and non-protected areas for females compared to males, with people being the dominant cause of mortality outside protected areas for both females and males. We suggest there is cause for concern regarding the sustainability of leopard populations in South Africa, as high female mortality may have severe demographic effects and a large proportion of suitable leopard habitat lies in non-protected areas. However, because a large proportion of deaths outside protected areas were attributed to deliberate killing by people, we suggest that management interventions may have the potential to increase leopard survival dramatically. We therefore stress the urgency to initiate actions, such as conflict mitigation programmes, to increase leopard survival in non-protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]