WILDLIFE MONITORING

Greg Stuart-Hill

World Wildlife Fund

This focuses on wildlife (fauna) monitoring. Other natural resource monitoring systems (e.g. veld, fish, forestry) are also important

Monitoring is needed for adaptive management

Yes

Modify objectives or management

No

Are objectives being

achieved?

The context:

Monitor to see if

objectives being

achieved

Set objectives(land-use planning)

Manage according to objectives

Population Estimate

Population Trend

Animal Distribution

Sex/Age

MANAG

EMENT &

USE

Intr

oducti

ons

Remov

als

Trophy Q

uality

Touris

m S

atisf

actio

n

Wat

erAnti-

poach

ing w

ork

What should be monitored?

Body Condition

Population Ecol

Problem

Anim

als

Poach

ing

Mor

talit

yRai

nfall

Disturb

ance

-

------

-- W

ILDLIF

E ----

------

-- (A

ll sp

ecies

)

IMPACTS

(Impor

tant s

pecies

)

Need: To know how many animals there are, each year.

Why? • To estimate off-take quotas, and• To determine drought risk & livestock competition

How? • Use road counts/aerial census/cybertracker counts • Use correction-factors (eg transect width, distance, etc)• For rare species (eg rhino) use known group/individuals

1.1 Population Estimates

Output: ……..a Table for each year!

Numbers are very difficult to obtain – most census methods underestimate wildlife populations!

SPECIES COUNT NUMBER POPULATION ESTIMATE

Kudu 254 300

Eland 116 150

Giraffe 23 50

Elephant 22 70

etc etc etc

Species Number Distance east south

Grid Cell/ GPS

Notes (sex age structure, etc)

Datasheet:

1.2 Population Trend

Output: …provide a graph for each species!

Counts do not have to be ‘accurate’ – a change in an index over time is fine!

Be careful of using the last point on the graph – this could be an error - so check the sex-age information

Years

Kudu

Here’s a problem!Zebra

Years

Great!

FIXED FOOT PATROLS

OBSERVERS DATE

ROUTE: START POSITION START TIMEDISTANCE END POSITION END TIME

Time Species Numbereast south

Grid Cell/ GPS

Notes (sex age structure, etc)

Need: to know what is happening to the wildlife populations. Why? Is wildlife management sustainableHow? Fixed Foot Patrols, fixed road counts, Cybertracker

Counts and Aerial census. Can use an index! ….... But sampling effort must be controlled ! …..

Datasheet:

Output:

1.3 Game Distribution

Need a Map showing where each species is concentrated

Why? To identify wildlife concentration areas for land-use planning purposes (also to see monitor distribution changes over the years)

How? Use Cyber tracker or Grid blocks for all sightings (NB also record where animals were not seen)

Data collection:

Lets build a lodge here because this is where most of

the game is

Why not put a borehole here to utilize this area

Year 1 Year 10

Land

use

pla

nnin

g

Mon

itori

ng

Output:

1.4 Sex-Age Ratio Monitoring

Male : Female RatioIt is necessary to know the ratio of Adult male to female

because:• Live game capture/sale normally results in higher

proportions of females - with potentially devastating impacts to the population

• To properly evaluate breeding success, you need to view number of young in relation to the number of females

• For input into population modeling which is used to predict population growth and future harvest potential and stocking rates

Need to determine ratios between adults, sub-adults an juveniles

Why? Use this information as an early warning of the current ‘health’ of the wildlife population

SEX-AGE SURVEY

SpeciesTotal

NumberAd-Male

Ad-Female

Sub-Adults

Juvenile

Datasheet:

Young: Adult Ratio• If the ratio of young to

adults diminishes then this is an early warning that the population is in trouble

• If the ratio between sub-adults and juveniles changes this gives an indication of post breeding survival ability – i.e. useful to evaluate impact of predation

2.1 Mortalities

Output 1: a Trend graph of mortalities over years

Output 2: Map showing where mortalities are

Map: Showing mortalities

If sudden Increase

Also need to know the cause of mortalities

(i.e. is it due to poaching, disease, drought?)

But only if they these are abnormally high

Need: To keep track of mortalities

Why? To alert management if mortalities suddenly rise & plan action based on the cause (e.g. poaching, disease, drought)

Years

Mortality

What is going on here? What is causing these abnormally high

mortalities?

Datasheet:

2.2 Poaching

Need: To track poaching as a threat to wildlife

Why? To understand the threat to wildlife and gauge community support for the Conservancy

Years

Poaching

Poaching is getting bad!

Datasheet:

Output:

If Increasing

1 elephant, 1 rhino

1 leopard

-

-

Commercial

1 kudu

8 kudu,

1 giraffe

1 kudu,

1 duiker

Meat

Non-citizens

2Other Citizens

10Neighbors

2Residents

CasesCATEGORY

A Table breaking down

incidents for each year

• Graph - is poaching being controlled?

• Map - where poaching is taking place?

• Table - who is poaching & what is being taken?

Map: Showing where

poaching is occurring

2.3 Problem Animals (PAC)

Need: To track problem animal incidents, identify those species causing problems, evaluate damage caused & record efforts that go into reducing conflict with problem animals

Why? To understand the impact of wildlife on people & find ways to reduce conflict and compensate individuals.

How? Keep record of all PAC incidents. Track attempts to reduce conflict (e.g. fencing, water protection, kraaling).

Datasheet: PAC LOG

Date Village Species NumberType of

lossha number

Prevention (kraal/fence)

Yes

/No

Num

Kill

ed

Complainant

Complainant's signature

Extent of lossProblem animal Reaction

Output:

2.4 Rainfall

Need: To track rainfall as a threat & opportunity for wildlife

Why? To separate the effects of rainfall from the impacts of human activity on wildlife and help explain population trend

Datasheet:

Output:

Map: Showing where

rainfall occurred

• A Graph – is rainfall above or below average?

Years

Its been a good season!

• A Map - where did rain fall or not fall?

2.5 Disturbance (e.g. livestock, cropping, tourists)

Need: To track other land-use activities such as cropping, livestock farming, tourist activity

Why? To understand the threat of these disturbances and gauge if these have impacted on wildlife

Disturbance is affecting the elephants

Data Collection: • Map areas of cropping and livestock farming• Map areas of tourism activity and keep track of tourism numbers on

various roads• Record ‘flight’ distance (at what distance does game raun away from a

vehicle) of game on an annual basis• Record how far wildlife will come within a homestead• Keep a note if animals only drink at night

Output:

• Graph - Relate an index of disturbance (e.g. ‘flight distance’ to indices of human impacts (e.g. settlement, tourism, etc).

• Map - Also compare wildlife distribution maps with maps of human activity.

3.1 Game Introductions & Removals

Need: To keep a record of how many animals are Introduced or Removed

Why? To know if continued Introductions/Removals are wise, & explain any changes in the population trend-graphs

How? Keep a record of all animals that are Introduced and all animals that are Removed from the area.

Output: ………..a Table for each year!

SPECIES Removed Introduced**

Kudu 30 -

Eland 15 -

Giraffe 3 -

Zebra - 100

Gemsbok - 50

** Need to also check on success of each introduction

Also refer to the following pages in this manual for:1. Game Removals2. Game introductions

These pages will explain in greater detail the ‘Removal’ and ‘Introduction’ monitoring systems

3.1.1 Game Removals (“Harvesting”)

How?

Each time animals are removed (sold or hunted) keep a record of:

• how many animals are removed against quota• sex of removed animals• for animals hunted, record trophies

Output: …..a Table for each year!

SPECIES Quota Removed Male:Female

Kudu 40 30 20:10

Eland 15 15 10:5

Giraffe 3 3 3:0

Zebra 2 - -

Gemsbok 5 - -

(see ‘Trophy Quality’ in the manual)

3.1.2 Game Introductions

Output: …Distribution map and a Table

SPECIES Number Introduced

Survival BreedingAdult:Young

Zebra 100 60% 100:40

Gemsbok 100 95% 100:3

If Breeding Rates are less than a critical level (level varies per species) then this indicates that a species will not thrive even though it survived survived the introduction event

How?1. Keep a record of how many animals are introduced2. Also check on the success (i.e. survival & breeding) of each introduction by :

• Conducting sex-age survey to determine ratios between adult females and young (see ‘sex-age monitoring’ in this manual)

• Monitor marked (collared) animals to determine survival rates and ensure they are still in the area.

OK!

If Survival Rates are less than 90% for a species then a mortality report should be attached to the table

OK!

3.2 Trophy Quality

Need: to track change in Trophy Quality (e.g. tusk/horn size)

Why? Trophy hunting will not affect wildlife population growth (excluding predators), but too much hunting results in poor trophy size - this leads to a lower concession value.

How? From trophy hunter records

Output:

Datasheet:

Permit# Species Sex Trophy (L) Trophy (R) Client PH

             

             

             

             

Tusk Size

Years

Lower the elephant quota! - we have taken too many.

Hunters can only find small tuskers

…provide a trophy size trend graph for each species, over years!

3.3 Tourist Satisfaction

Output:

Need to track game viewing success (i.e. number of sightings, number of species, etc).

Why? • know game viewing potential for planing & marketing,• to evaluate whether each animal population is at

adequate numbers to satisfy tourists.• to assess whether a problem species could be reduced

without harming game viewing

Species Sighting index Comments of sighting satisfaction per species

     

     

     

     

Datasheet:

Elephant

Years

If we reduce elephant numbers it will save us a lot

of damage and have no effect on game viewing

Years

Lion

We should re-introduce lions - they are key to tourism and are not being seen anymore

… provide a ‘game viewing success’ graph for each species, over years!

3.4 Water Points

Need: to closely monitor and repair any water installation, particularly in the dry season. Why? Water is critical to wildlife, people and livestock. There is considerable conflict around this resource and so it is essential to ensure that water installations function. How? Each water point should be visited on a regular basis and if necessary repairs made immediately.

Datasheets:

Bore # Locality DateProtection against

Presently working?

Comments, including repairs if any

Damage by?Elephant Theft

               

               

               

               

               

               

4.1 Important Species: Population Performance

Need: To to track population performance of species such as predators, elephant, rhino, disease free buffalo, etc

Why? To know how many there are and how their populations are performing.

How? Normal count methods do not work for rare or nocturnal species. Use specially designed systems (e.g. radio tracking, known group). This usually involves specialist research teams from MET, SRT, etc.

Output:

Mon

ths

betw

een

calv

es

Years

Rhino inter-calving period is suddenly increasing. There

seems to be a problem ?

4.2 Important Species: Body-Condition

Need: To track body condition of critical species such as Rhino, disease free Buffalo, Roan, etc

Why? To serve as an early warning of a nutritional (drought) problem.

How? Estimate body fat on a sample of animals each month and graph.

Lets provide extra feed for the buffalo!

I foresee problems this winter

Output:

Body Fat

Years