Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting

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dc.contributor.authorBraczkowski, Alex Richarden_ZA
dc.contributor.authorBalme, Guy Andrewen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDickman, Amyen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorMacdonald, David Whyteen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorFattebert, Julienen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDickerson, Tristanen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Paulen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorHunter, Lukeen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-11-18T07:12:53Z
dc.date.available2015-11-18T07:12:53Z
dc.date.issued2015en_ZA
dc.description.abstractReliable data is fundamentally important for managing large carnivore populations, and vital for informing hunting quota levels if those populations are subject to trophy hunting. Camera-trapping and spoor counts can provide reliable population estimates for many carnivores, but governments typically lack the resources to implement such surveys over the spatial scales required to inform robust quota setting. It may therefore be prudent to shift focus away from estimating population size and instead focus on monitoring population trend. In this paper we assess the susceptibility of African leopards Panthera pardus to trophy hunting. This has management ramifications, particularly if the use of harvest composition is to be explored as a metric of population trend. We explore the susceptibility of different leopard age and sex cohorts to trophy hunting; first by examining their intrinsic susceptibility to encountering trophy hunters using camera-traps as surrogates, and second by assessing their extrinsic susceptibility using photographic questionnaire surveys to determine their attractiveness to hunters. We show that adult male and female leopards share similar incident rates to encountering hunters but adult males are the most susceptible to hunting due to hunter preference for large trophies. In contrast, sub-adult leopards rarely encounter hunters and are the least attractive trophies. We suggest that our findings be used as a foundation for the exploration of a harvest composition scheme in the Kwazulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces where post mortem information is collected from hunted leopards and submitted to the local provincial authorities.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationBraczkowski, A. R., Balme, G. A., Dickman, A., Macdonald, D. W., Fattebert, J., Dickerson, T., ... Hunter, L. (2015). Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting. <i>PLoS One</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15149en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationBraczkowski, Alex Richard, Guy Andrew Balme, Amy Dickman, David Whyte Macdonald, Julien Fattebert, Tristan Dickerson, Paul Johnson, and Luke Hunter "Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting." <i>PLoS One</i> (2015) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15149en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationBraczkowski, A. R., Balme, G. A., Dickman, A., Macdonald, D. W., Fattebert, J., Dickerson, T., ... & Hunter, L. (2014). Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting. PloS one, 10(4), e0123100. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123100en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Braczkowski, Alex Richard AU - Balme, Guy Andrew AU - Dickman, Amy AU - Macdonald, David Whyte AU - Fattebert, Julien AU - Dickerson, Tristan AU - Johnson, Paul AU - Hunter, Luke AB - Reliable data is fundamentally important for managing large carnivore populations, and vital for informing hunting quota levels if those populations are subject to trophy hunting. Camera-trapping and spoor counts can provide reliable population estimates for many carnivores, but governments typically lack the resources to implement such surveys over the spatial scales required to inform robust quota setting. It may therefore be prudent to shift focus away from estimating population size and instead focus on monitoring population trend. In this paper we assess the susceptibility of African leopards Panthera pardus to trophy hunting. This has management ramifications, particularly if the use of harvest composition is to be explored as a metric of population trend. We explore the susceptibility of different leopard age and sex cohorts to trophy hunting; first by examining their intrinsic susceptibility to encountering trophy hunters using camera-traps as surrogates, and second by assessing their extrinsic susceptibility using photographic questionnaire surveys to determine their attractiveness to hunters. We show that adult male and female leopards share similar incident rates to encountering hunters but adult males are the most susceptible to hunting due to hunter preference for large trophies. In contrast, sub-adult leopards rarely encounter hunters and are the least attractive trophies. We suggest that our findings be used as a foundation for the exploration of a harvest composition scheme in the Kwazulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces where post mortem information is collected from hunted leopards and submitted to the local provincial authorities. DA - 2015 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0123100 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLoS One LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 T1 - Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting TI - Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15149 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/15149
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123100
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationBraczkowski AR, Balme GA, Dickman A, Macdonald DW, Fattebert J, Dickerson T, et al. Who bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy hunting. PLoS One. 2015; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15149.en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Biological Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.rights.holder© 2015 Braczkowski et alen_ZA
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_ZA
dc.sourcePLoS Oneen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosoneen_ZA
dc.subject.otherLeopardsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPumasen_ZA
dc.subject.otherWildlifeen_ZA
dc.subject.otherCarnivoryen_ZA
dc.subject.otherData managementen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPredationen_ZA
dc.subject.otherSouth Africaen_ZA
dc.titleWho bites the bullet first? the susceptibility of Leopards Panthera Pardus to trophy huntingen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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