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Impact of Human Disturbance and Beliefs on the Tree Agama Acanthocercus Atricollis Atricollis in a South African Communal Settlement

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Impact of Human Disturbance and Beliefs on the Tree Agama Acanthocercus Atricollis Atricollis in a South African Communal Settlement Macquarie University ResearchOnline This is the published version of: Whiting, MJ; Chetty, K; Twine, W and Carazo P (2009) Impact of human disturbance and beliefs on the tree agama Acanthocercus atricollis atricollis in a South African communal settlement. Oryx 43:4, pp. 586-590. Copyright: Copyright [2009] Cambridge University Press. Article originally published in Oryx, 43:4, pp. 586-590. The original article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1017/S0030605309990160 Impact of human disturbance and beliefs on the tree agama Acanthocercus atricollis atricollis in a South African communal settlement M artin J. Whiting,Kinesh C hetty,Wayne T wine and P au C arazo Abstract We investigated the effects of human disturbance which is a significant threat to cavity-dwelling vertebrates and attitudes on the density of the tree agama Acantho- such as birds and small mammals (Du Plessis, 1995). cercus atricollis atricollis in a densely populated rural set- Certain arboreal lizards such as tree agamas Acanthocercus tlement in South Africa. In this environment agamas live atricollis atricollis and skinks Trachylepis spp. are not only on trees that are harvested for firewood or maintained for dependent on trees for refuge (Cooper & Whiting, 2000; fruit production. We conducted visual encounter surveys Reaney & Whiting, 2002) but also use them as foraging of A. a. atricollis and interviewed local households to vantage points (Vitt et al., 1981). Furthermore, removal of establish whether human attitudes and actions could affect trees influences the thermal environment available to tree agama populations. Although local residents viewed lizards (Vitt et al., 1998), which may have cascading effects tree agamas negatively (50% of interviewees claimed to in which certain species increase in abundance at the have killed an agama) and acted to exclude them from their expense of others (Vitt et al., 1998). Consequently, when environment, tree agama density in villages was higher than trees are harvested selectively the landscape is transformed that of adjacent communal rangelands and than a previ- (Germaine & Wakeling, 2001), and these species may be ously reported density estimate in a nearby protected area. negatively affected. Therefore, not only are humans com- We suggest three major factors that could explain why tree peting with wildlife for space but also for key resources. agamas are favoured in this peri-urban landscape in the face Smart et al. (2005) recorded higher densities of tree of human persecution: firstly, predators such as snakes and agamas in degraded communal lands compared to a nearby raptors are likely to occur at a much lower density in peri- conserved area, noted the presence of tree agamas in rural urban areas; secondly, their primary prey (insects) may be villages but did not quantify their abundance, and found more abundant or accessible in this landscape; thirdly, they that local residents had a negative perception of tree may experience less competition for resources. agamas and may be persecuting them. The aim of our Keywords Acanthocercus atricollis atricollis, habitat degra- study was therefore to establish whether tree agamas and dation, reptile, South Africa, superstitions, tree agama, tree humans can coexist in a high-density peri-urban environ- harvesting ment and whether human perceptions of tree agamas result in any form of persecution that could affect their viability. A second motivation for focusing on tree agamas is that they are arboreal and therefore dependent on trees, a Introduction natural resource used by humans. Consequently, tree andscape alteration and degradation is an unfortunate agamas may face a dual threat: habitat destruction and Lconsequence of a rapidly expanding human popula- persecution by humans. tion. This pressure on the environment can take two forms: We surveyed tree agamas in local villages and adjacent direct harvesting of plants and animals for food or harvest- disturbed rangelands in the same general area as Smart ing of key resources on which wildlife may depend et al. (2005) for comparison with their measures of tree (Du Plessis, 1995). In southern African savannahs trees are agama density in a nearby protected area. Because Smart routinely harvested for firewood and building material, et al. (2005) had established that tree agamas are more densely populated in disturbed areas compared to pro- tected areas we restricted our surveys to a complex MARTIN J. WHITING (Corresponding author) and KINESH CHETTY School of adjoining villages and nearby communal, disturbed of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwaters- rand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. E-mail martin.whiting@ rangelands. We addressed anthropomorphic threats to wits.ac.za A. a. atricollis by integrating field surveys of tree agamas WAYNE TWINE School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, with questionnaire surveys of local village residents. Our University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Wits Rural Facility, study asked the following questions: (1)DoA. a. atricollis Acornhoek, South Africa. occur in reduced numbers in villages compared to nearby PAU CARAZO Laboratorio de Etologı´a, Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biologı´a Evolutiva, Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. rangelands that are less disturbed? We specifically tested Received 9 April 2008. Revision requested 25 July 2008. the prediction that tree agamas would occur at lower Accepted 17 September 2008. densities in villages. (2) Are any differences in abundance ª 2009 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 43(4), 586–590 doi:10.1017/S0030605309990160 Printed in the United Kingdom Human impact on tree agamas 587 explained by habitat features? (3) What are the traditional climate and socio-economic conditions of Bushbuckridge beliefs concerning tree agamas and could human attitudes is given in Shackleton (2000). have negative impacts on local populations of A. a. atricollis? A. a. atricollis occurs from eastern South Africa north- wards into Zimbabwe and Mozambique (Branch, 1998). Study area and species While there has been no recent conservation assessment of this species (IUCN, 2008), it is a wide-ranging (Branch, Fieldwork was conducted in seven adjacent villages in 1998) and relatively common species (authors, pers. obs.). Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, Mpumalanga Province Tree agamas are large (largest snout-vent length: 167 mm), (Fig. 1) and adjoining communal rangeland, in an area diurnal, arboreal, sexually dichromatic (females are olive 2 encompassing 13.3 km during September of both 2003 and coloured with black marbling, and mature males have 2007. Each village was distinct from the next and separated a bright blue head and throat and a vertebral stripe) and by at least 2–3 km. Bushbuckridge is characterized by high insectivorous (Reaney & Whiting, 2002). A. a. atricollis is population density, poverty and land-use practices typical a classic ambush forager that spends most of its time of African savannah rangelands such as cattle overstocking waiting for potential prey on tree trunks or lateral branches and intensive harvesting of firewood (Shackleton, 2000). (Reaney & Whiting, 2003). As such, villages are largely devoid of vegetation except for scattered trees (mainly marula Sclerocarya birrea caffra), Methods hedges and small-scale vegetable gardens. In the late 1990s 2 the mean population density was 176 people km- (Pollard To estimate whether tree agamas are more abundant in et al., 1999) and the cattle stocking rate was 0.88 livestock villages than in surrounding rangelands we systematically 1 units ha- (four times the recommended stocking rate; surveyed trees that were sufficiently large to harbour tree Parsons et al., 1997). A detailed description of the vegetation, agamas (minimum diameter 0.09 m) and recorded the FIG. 1 Location of the study area in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa. ª 2009 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 43(4), 586–590 588 M. J. Whiting et al. number of lizards in each tree. We sampled 300 trees: 150 proportion of negative responses would suggest that other in the villages and 150 in the adjacent rangelands. Because responses were answered truthfully. The survey was always temporal differences in lizard activity patterns may affect carried out by KC with the help of a translator fluent in abundance estimates we blocked our sampling procedure Tsonga. Households were randomly sampled in Sigagula so that, within each day, we alternated our sampling site village (Fig. 1), which is relatively central in the study area. between different habitat types every 10–20 tree surveys. We stopped interviewing after 49 households because of the We also balanced each day’s starting site (village vs range- consistent nature of responses. land) so that equal numbers of trees were sampled in both Because relatively high numbers of trees did not contain habitat types on the same day, and each habitat type was A. a. atricollis we used non-parametric Mann–Whitney sampled an equal amount of times within a given time tests to determine if there was any significant difference in frame across different days (i.e. early morning, mid the number of lizards per tree in the villages compared to morning, late morning, midday, early afternoon, late surrounding rangelands. To examine what factors best afternoon). Surveys for tree agamas were conducted by predicted lizard abundance (physical characteristics of trees two people approaching a tree from opposite sides. We first or location) we
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