Socio-economic and ecological correlates of leopard-stock farmer conflict in the Baviaanskloof mega-reserve, Eastern Cape

Minnie, Liaan

Title: Socio-economic and ecological correlates of leopard-stock farmer conflict in the Baviaanskloof mega-reserve, Eastern Cape
Creator: Minnie, Liaan
Subject: Leopard -- Ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Leopard -- Conservation -- South Africa -- Baviaanskloof
Subject: Leopard -- Conservation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Wildlife conservation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Subject: Leopard -- Effect of human beings on
Date Issued: 2009
Date: 2009
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MSc
Identifier: vital:10702
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1044
Identifier: Leopard -- Ecology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Identifier: Leopard -- Conservation -- South Africa -- Baviaanskloof
Identifier: Leopard -- Conservation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Identifier: Wildlife conservation -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
Identifier: Leopard -- Effect of human beings on
Description: The leopard, Panthera pardus, is particularly threatened outside conservation areas in South Africa. This has been attributed to a reduction in natural habitat, decreasing natural prey populations, and commercial exploitation such as trophy hunting, and most importantly, persecution by stock farmers (Woodroffe 2001). The leopard population in the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve (BMR) has undergone a substantial decrease in range and numbers in the past 200 years, resulting in a highly fragmented population in the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve, and is regarded as being insecure. There is thus a need to investigate the nature and extent of leopard-stock farmer interactions to provide the foundation for an effective leopard conservation plan. Here I investigated the ecological and socio-economic factors influencing leopard-stock farmer conflict via landowner surveys and estimated potential leopard numbers using a prey-based density model. Leopards are not necessarily the most important causes of livestock mortality in the BMR. On average, leopards killed significantly less livestock (0.7 percent livestock per year) than black-backed jackals (4.7 percent per year) and caracal (2.5 percent per year), yet 67 percent of farmers had negative attitudes towards leopards. These negative attitudes were not significantly related to stock losses. However, most of the farmers that had negative attitudes towards leopards did not have any stock losses attributed to leopards. Thus if predator-stock conflict is not reduced it will result in the retaliatory killing of leopards. This will have severe consequences for this relatively small population (estimated at 59 – 104 individuals by the prey-based model), which may ultimately lead to the local extinction of these leopards (Woodroffe & Ginsberg 1998).
Format: ix, 87 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
Publisher: Faculty of Science
Language: English
Rights: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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