Browsing by Subject "Hunting"
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Item Open Access Assessing Vertebrate Abundance and the Effects of Anthropogenic Disturbance on Tropical Forest Dynamics(2012-04-27) Rosin, CooperThe Madre de Dios river basin in southeastern Peru is one of the largest and most diverse forest ecosystems on the planet. Though conservation zones with strict protection do exist in the basin, human population growth and development are having a considerable effect on forest dynamics. One major threat is the hunting-induced reduction or local extinction of large-bodied vertebrates. Vertebrate fauna contribute substantially to the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem processes – most notably through the dispersal of seeds by frugivores – and their loss may have disastrous consequences both to forest community composition and to the human populations which rely on ecosystem health and functioning. On the basis of 300km of standardized line-transect sampling, I documented the current densities of vertebrate frugivores across three forest sites under varying degrees of hunting pressure. I compared results across sites and interpreted them in terms of current pressures as well as site-specific trends in seedfall and tree recruitment. Increasing hunting pressure reduced large-bodied frugivores, corresponding with distinct shifts in vertebrate community composition and seedfall patterns. In response to these results, future efforts should promote strict protection of large-bodied vertebrate frugivores, with continued expansive multi-taxa forest monitoring across ontogenetic stages.Item Open Access Effects of hunting and human disturbance on wildlife near villages in northeastern Gabon(2018-04-27) MacCarthy, JamesBushmeat from wild animals is the primary source of protein and income for many rural communities in northeastern Gabon, but mammals also provide valuable ecosystem services that may be jeopardized by unsustainable hunting practices and human disturbance. In this study, we deployed nearly 200 camera traps over two years to investigate whether hunting and other forms of human disturbance resulting from resource extraction activities, such as logging, alter mammal communities in tropical forests. The results of our study indicate that hunting and human disturbance reduces large mammal abundance close to roads and in more populated areas. In particular, chimpanzees and mandrills occurred far from roads, possibly reflecting more intense hunting of these species either for meat or in retaliation for crop raiding. Low relative abundances may be partially offset by in-migration from source populations in remote forests, but the further expansion of logging roads could disrupt this buffering mechanism. Although we did not find any significant effects for medium mammals as a group, Peter’s duikers and white-bellied duikers responded negatively to hunting intensity and were more numerous farther from villages and Makokou. By contrast, small mammals, such as rats and brush-tailed porcupines, responded positively to the density of logging roads, suggesting that low abundances of medium and large mammals release them from predation and competition for resourcesor that disturbed forest provides a more favorable habitat for small mammals than primary forest. Our results indicate that anthropogenic factors strongly influence the abundances and distributions of species in our study and forecast wildlife communities dominated by small mammals in human disturbed areas. To ensure a sustainable supply of animal protein for rural people, rural communities must actively manage their forests for wildlife. Wildlife management systems near villages should include a quota system that allows year-round hunting of small mammals, but limits hunting of large mammals to specific months, seasons, and areas. Government- or NGO-funded compensation for crop damage could ease the antipathy towards animals and conservation, and funding of community-led wildlife monitoring could raise awareness of the effects of hunting and the ecological and livelihood benefits of large mammals. Likewise, forestry operations should prohibit hunting in their concessions, and actively enforce regulations against hunting and use of logging roads.Item Open Access Exploring the interactions of wildlife and rural communities in Carara National Park, Costa Rica(2010-12-09) Huson, KimberlyPark officials at Carara National Park, Costa Rica, face considerable challenges. They believe poaching has become a significant threat to the park’s biodiversity and that their enforcement measures, largely due to limited funds, are inadequate. Through family-level interviews in six communities surrounding Carara National Park, this study aims to understand the dynamics of poaching by identifying animals at risk of poaching and identifying communities to target future enforcement measures. Interviews inquired about interactions with wildlife, perceived populations of wildlife, sale of wildlife, opinions towards hunting, and observed hunting activities. Summary statistics, CART modeling and probit regressions are used to analyze the data. Results indicate hunting is not prevalent in terms of the number of families that hunt. However, these families can still have significant impacts on wildlife populations with poaching occurring for both subsistence and market-oriented reasons. Two potential community sets are identified as areas to target enforcement. Based on the number of reported families engaging in hunting, enforcement should be targeted in Bijagual and Tárcoles. However, exploring truthfulness through CART and probit regression analysis indicates enforcement should be targeted in El Sur and La Hacienda. Ultimately, future enforcement measures will be determined by Carara officials. Although potential target communities are identified and management practices such as ecotourism and community-based management are potentially viable avenues for reducing poaching, the park faces considerable challenges for enforcement due to its limited financial capabilities.Item Open Access Forecasted Afrotropical Forest Responses to Climate Change Diverge from Neotropical Predictions with Consequences for Biodiversity Conservation and Carbon Storage(2019) Nuñez, Chase LemondUnderstanding how tropical forests respond to changes in the abiotic environment and human disturbance is critical for preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and maintaining ecosystem services in the coming century. The lowland rainforests of Central Africa in particular are expected to lose 41% of present dense forest cover in the next 50 years to forest clearing, due in large part to forest loss resulting from the expansion of subsistence agriculture and logging. Deforestation also contributes a net increase in carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, exacerbating forest losses via increased tree mortality from drought, fire, and dispersal failure. Despite these grim circumstances, we know little about how Paleotropical tree communities are likely to respond to predicted changes in disturbance and climate.
To evaluate the unique response of Afrotropical forests to changes in the abiotic environment and disturbance, I employ diverse data including species inventories, seed rain, species traits, remotely sensed historic climatic data, future climate predictions, and soil nutrient data collected from 134 1-ha plots arrayed in two large-scale observational experiments spanning the central African countries of Gabon and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). I then combine these diverse data using novel modeling methods to 1) determine the relative roles of climate and human disturbance on tree community composition, 2) quantify the relative effects of human disturbance and the abiotic environment on tree fecundity and seed dispersal, and 3) forecast future tree community change given predicted changes in climate.
This work demonstrates that Afrotropical plant communities are more sensitive to human disturbance than to climate, with particular sensitivities to hunting and distance to village (a proxy for other human activities, including tree-cutting, gathering, etc.). These pressures have meaningful long-term effects on seed dispersal, increasing dispersal distances for animal dispersed seeds in disturbed forests. Finally, We forecast a 3 - 8% decrease in Afrotropical forest species richness by the end of the century, in contrast to the 30-50% loss of plant diversity predicted to occur with equivalent warming in the Neotropics.
This work reveals that community forecasts are not generalizable across regions, and more representative studies are needed in understudied biomes like the Afrotropics. Nascent data sets, increased availability of high quality remote sensing data, and new statistical techniques capable of synthesizing these various data will help in further resolving the fate of the world’s ecosystems. This study serves as an important counterpoint to work done in the Neotropics by providing contrasting predictions for Afrotropical forests with substantially different ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic histories.
Item Open Access Forecasted Afrotropical Forest Responses to Climate Change Diverge from Neotropical Predictions with Consequences for Biodiversity Conservation and Carbon Storage(2019) Nuñez, Chase LemondUnderstanding how tropical forests respond to changes in the abiotic environment and human disturbance is critical for preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and maintaining ecosystem services in the coming century. The lowland rainforests of Central Africa in particular are expected to lose 41% of present dense forest cover in the next 50 years to forest clearing, due in large part to forest loss resulting from the expansion of subsistence agriculture and logging. Deforestation also contributes a net increase in carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, exacerbating forest losses via increased tree mortality from drought, fire, and dispersal failure. Despite these grim circumstances, we know little about how Paleotropical tree communities are likely to respond to predicted changes in disturbance and climate.
To evaluate the unique response of Afrotropical forests to changes in the abiotic environment and disturbance, I employ diverse data including species inventories, seed rain, species traits, remotely sensed historic climatic data, future climate predictions, and soil nutrient data collected from 134 1-ha plots arrayed in two large-scale observational experiments spanning the central African countries of Gabon and the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). I then combine these diverse data using novel modeling methods to 1) determine the relative roles of climate and human disturbance on tree community composition, 2) quantify the relative effects of human disturbance and the abiotic environment on tree fecundity and seed dispersal, and 3) forecast future tree community change given predicted changes in climate.
This work demonstrates that Afrotropical plant communities are more sensitive to human disturbance than to climate, with particular sensitivities to hunting and distance to village (a proxy for other human activities, including tree-cutting, gathering, etc.). These pressures have meaningful long-term effects on seed dispersal, increasing dispersal distances for animal dispersed seeds in disturbed forests. Finally, We forecast a 3 - 8% decrease in Afrotropical forest species richness by the end of the century, in contrast to the 30-50% loss of plant diversity predicted to occur with equivalent warming in the Neotropics.
This work reveals that community forecasts are not generalizable across regions, and more representative studies are needed in understudied biomes like the Afrotropics. Nascent data sets, increased availability of high quality remote sensing data, and new statistical techniques capable of synthesizing these various data will help in further resolving the fate of the world’s ecosystems. This study serves as an important counterpoint to work done in the Neotropics by providing contrasting predictions for Afrotropical forests with substantially different ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic histories.
Item Open Access Getting to Liquidity: Determining Hunting Lease Prices using Predictive Analytics(2022-04-20) Christensen, JamieLand leasing for hunting has historically been conducted with little more than a handshake. In response, digital marketplaces provide tools and establish trust for landowners to connect with outdoor enthusiasts seeking hunting leases. In the early stages of these marketplaces, with limited land supply and use demand, establishing accurate pricing for the hunting leases is challenging. This project seeks to understand if a predictive land pricing capability can be developed for long-term hunting leases on land available in one such two-sided marketplace, Outdoor Access. Analysis of paid recreational leases on hunting listings from 2020 identified key attributes that contributed to the price of these leases. Using publicly available spatial data, a linear regression model was developed to assign predictive lease prices to hunting listings in 2021. While the model failed to predict accurate lease prices, it supported Outdoor Access negotiations of final lease prices with landowners and hunters.Item Open Access Plant-Animal Interactions and Defaunation in Tropical Forests: How Animal Communities and Anthropogenic Disturbances Drive Patterns in Seed Predation, Seedling Damage, and the Regeneration of Tropical Forest Trees(2017) Rosin, CooperThe biotic forces that shape plant communities across ontogenetic stages drive patterns in survival, vegetation structure, and species diversity. In tropical forests, many of these forces are facilitated by interactions with animals, which can either promote or inhibit plant reproduction. Disruptions to these interactions – such as defaunation resulting from hunting and logging – can generate broad changes in tree recruitment, forest structure, and carbon storage, with demographic filtering at the seed and seedling stages responsible for many of the effects. Research to date has largely focused on a subset of prominent interactions (especially seed dispersal), while concurrent disruptions to other less-studied ecological processes may drive changes of opposite directionality for individual species or entire communities. With a limited understanding of seed predation, seedling establishment, and seedling physical damage and survival – particularly in Central African forests – it remains difficult to predict the outcomes of defaunation for tropical forest plant communities. In this dissertation, I use a combination of literature reviews, field-based experimental methods (including telemetric seed tags, seed and seedling exclosures, and artificial seedlings) and statistical analyses to assess 1) the role of plant-animal interactions and the influence of hunting on the regeneration of timber trees across tropical forests; 2) patterns of secondary dispersal and seed fate for two tree species in northeastern Gabon; 3) the role of seed traits and both seed density and distance from the parent tree in driving patterns of seed mortality and seedling establishment for ten tree species in northeastern Gabon; 4) the impacts of hunting on seed predation and seedling establishment for eight commercially important tree species across a defaunation gradient in northeastern Gabon; and 5) the role of physical damage by vertebrate trampling, rooting, and digging to artificial seedlings in intact and hunted and/or logged forests in Peru, Gabon, and Malaysian Borneo. I conclude that 1) hunting is likely to disrupt plant-animal interactions and tropical forest timber regeneration, but that these effects can be ameliorated given appropriate management; 2) seed fate is dependent on seed size and the identity of the seed predator, with evidence of scatterhoarding and secondary dispersal in northeastern Gabon; 3) seed traits, not density or distance from the parent tree, drive patterns in seed mortality and seedling establishment in northeastern Gabon, with vertebrate seed predation a stronger force than other mortality factors; 4) hunting-induced defaunation drives increased rodent seed predation and decreased seedling establishment of commercially-important tree species; and 5) vertebrate physical damage to seedlings is a consistent force in forests across the tropics, and hunting significantly reduces its strength. This dissertation highlights the important roles of wildlife in tropical forest ecological processes as well as the degree to which these interactions can be disrupted through hunting-induced defaunation, and emphasizes the value of appropriate management and continued comparative research across tropical forest regions.
Item Open Access Sahibs and Shikar: Colonial Hunting and Wildlife in British India, 1800-1935(2009) Shresth, SwatiThis dissertation explores the colonization of wildlife in nineteenth and early twentieth century British India. It discusses hunting and colonial policies on wildlife to explore the political, social and cultural concerns that influenced British interactions with Indian wildlife, with their compatriots and with natives. Hunting, I argue was deeply implicated in the exercise of power in all these interactions. British policies on wildlife in the nineteenth century favored a neat categorization of wild animals as "vermin and "game." By the beginning of the twentieth century however, with decreasing numbers of carnivores and native opposition, the perceived complementarily between game preservation and vermin extermination was shattered. While the colonial administration continued both these policies, they also actively sought to formulate policies to protect all animals in areas designated as sanctuaries and national parks. Colonial hunting as it emerged from the late nineteenth century reflects the changing nature of the colonial state and a new imperial ideology of dominance. I also argue racial differences between the colonialists and colonized were articulated in the domain of hunting. While hunting represented domination of nature and natives, the "colonial hunt" also came to signify a paternal benevolent British rule. The importance given to hunting and to the notion of fair play in their hunting served to "identify" the moral and physical superiority of British rulers. The new ideology of paternalism was realized in the figure of the hunter-officer, the Sahib who in hunting dangerous carnivores was seen to act as a protector of the native. The changing nature of the colonial state and creation of racial differences also had a profound impact on colonial society which became increasingly self conscious of its own identity and image. Given the metropolitan engagement with social Darwinism and their location on the fringes of civilization as it were, colonialists became the center of metropolitan preoccupation with racial contamination. The emphasis on fair play, I argue reflects the efforts of the colonial elite to enforce a model code of conduct on its members and reassure an anxious metropole of the racial distance with the native. Policing behavior of their own, through categories like fair play was therefore essential to the agenda of creating racial differences. Due to a perceived connection between hunting, power and privilege, hunting also played an important role in social relations in colonial society. As hunting came to be regulated by laws by late nineteenth century, it often became the focal point of tensions in class and power within the colonial elite on the question of access to animals.
Item Open Access The Effects of Hunting on a Forest Animal Community in Gabon(2015-04-24) Blanchard, EmilyGabon holds some of the world’s richest, most species-diverse tropical rainforest. Over 80% of the country’s landcover is forest and up to 20% of its plant and animal species are endemic. However, as the country seeks to increase its economic development through practices such as logging, the resulting creation of new roads and settlements in formerly remote areas increases the risk of bushmeat hunting and poaching. Species such as the African forest elephant have already experienced dramatic declines from hunting, which poses potential ecological consequences such as reduced seed dispersion. This study examined the effects of hunting on an animal community in a northeastern area of Gabon by measuring three types of hunting pressure: roads, waterways, and human populations. I focused on 9 animal species (Crowned Guenon, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, Mustached Monkey, White-nosed Guenon, Blue Duiker, Yellow-backed Duiker, African Forest Elephant, Chimpanzee and Gorilla) because of their specific targeting by bushmeat hunters or poachers and because they had adequate data to estimate population abundance. The study area, a 5,800 sq. km region in the Ogouué Ivindo province of northeastern Gabon, reflected a gradient of human activities and hunting pressure. The study consisted of direct (animals seen or heard) and indirect (dung piles or nests) observations along 24 transects, which were walked at least once per month from January to December 2014. I used these observations to calculate species abundances and compared these to past estimates. In addition, I analyzed abundance correlations with the three forms of hunting pressure. Overall, 8 of the 9 species analyzed in this study have declined in abundance since their previous estimates. Blue Duikers have suffered the most drastic decline, followed by Chimpanzees and White-nosed Guenons. Distances to the nearest small village and nearest main road were the overall strongest and most commonly significant indicators of hunting pressure. Results suggest that most of the study area’s species decline has been caused by excessive bushmeat hunting. On the whole, the entire wildlife community is declining in abundance and these trends are likely to continue unless measures are taken to reduce rates of hunting and poaching.