Estimating leopard density across the highly modified human-dominated landscape of the Western Cape, South Africa

Journal article

Apex predators play a critical role in maintaining the health of ecosystems but are highly susceptible to habitat degradation and loss caused by land-use changes, and to anthropogenic mortality. The leopard Panthera pardus is the last free-roaming large carnivore in the Western Cape province, South Africa. During –, we carried out a camera-trap survey across three regions covering c. , km of the Western Cape. Our survey comprised camera sites sampling nearly , camera-trap nights, resulting in the identification of individuals. We used two spatially explicit capture–recapture methods (R programmes secr and SPACECAP) to provide a comprehensive density analysis capable of incorporating environmental and anthropogenic factors

Authors: Devens, CH; Hayward, MW; Tshabalala, T; Dickman, A; McManus, JS

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 34-45
• Publication date: 2019-09-30
• DOI: 10.1017/s0030605318001473
• EISSN: 1365-3008
• ISSN: 0030-6053
• Language: English
• Keywords: Predation; Camera trap; Geography; Mark and recapture; Carnivore; Biology; Panthera; Archaeology; Demography; Distance sampling; Population density; Ecology; Cape; Habitat destruction; Leopard; Habitat; Apex predator; Population