Dheer, Arjun. 2016. Resource Partitioning Between Spotted Hyenas
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Southampton 16th August 2016 FACULTY OF NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES CENTRE FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES RESOURCE PARTITIONING BETWEEN SPOTTED HYENAS (CROCUTA CROCUTA) AND LIONS (PANTHERA LEO) Arjun Dheer A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.Res. Wildlife Conservation. 1 As the nominated University supervisor of this M.Res. project by Arjun Dheer, I confirm that I have had the opportunity to comment on earlier drafts of the report prior to submission of the dissertation for consideration of the award of M.Res. Wildlife Conservation. Signed………………………………….. UoS Supervisor’s name: Prof. C. Patrick Doncaster As the nominated Marwell Wildlife supervisor of this M.Res. project by Arjun Dheer, I confirm that I have had the opportunity to comment on earlier drafts of the report prior to submission of the dissertation for consideration of the award of M.Res. Wildlife Conservation. Signed…………………………………… MW Supervisor’s name: Dr. Zeke Davidson 2 Abstract The negative impact of anthropogenic activities on wildlife has led to protected areas being set aside to prevent human-wildlife conflict. These protected areas are often small and fenced in order to meet the needs of expanding human communities and to conserve wildlife. This creates challenges for the management of wide-ranging animals such as large carnivores, especially those that compete with one another for limited resources. This study focused on resource partitioning between GPS-GSM collared spotted hyenas (hereafter referred to as hyenas) and lions in Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (LWC) and Borana Conservancy (BC), Kenya. Scat analysis revealed that hyenas and lions show a high degree of dietary overlap, though hyenas have broader diets and feed on livestock species, which lions completely avoid. Spatially, hyenas show stronger intraspecific avoidance and more exclusive territorial behaviour than do lions. Hyenas and lions have a high degree of spatial overlap, though lions may influence den site selection in hyenas. Both species are heavily nocturnal and crepuscular, though hyenas tend to travel significantly further at night than do lions. Hyenas and lions both display mixed results in dynamic spatiotemporal interactions, with 40% of hyena-lion pairs showing attraction and 70% showing simultaneous use of overlapping areas. All but one inter-clan hyena pairs show strong avoidance, though lion pairs were not as mutually repulsive. This shows that hyenas and lions may use one another as sources of food and that scavenging and kleptoparasitism likely play a role in their dynamic. The hyena population is suggested to be growing and healthy, though the lion population is of concern due to lower density, isolation, and low recruitment. Further investigation into human-carnivore conflict within surrounding communities, long-term demographic and behavioural trends of all members of the large carnivore guild, and the potential development of a dispersal-based metapopulation management scheme will allow for the continued persistence of large carnivores in the Lewa-Borana Landscape (LBL) and their coexistence with human communities. Target journal: African Journal of Ecology 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................ 9 1.2 The value of large carnivores ................................................................................................ 9 1.3 Resource partitioning between carnivores ........................................................................... 10 1.4 Carnivores in small reserves ................................................................................................ 11 1.5 LWC and BC ....................................................................................................................... 11 2. Aims and objectives ............................................................................................................ 13 3. Materials and methods ......................................................................................................... 14 3.1 Study area ............................................................................................................................ 14 3.1.1 Location ........................................................................................................................ 14 3.1.2 Climate and biodiversity ............................................................................................... 14 3.1.3 Communities and human influence .............................................................................. 15 3.2 Data collection ..................................................................................................................... 18 3.3 Capture and collaring........................................................................................................... 18 3.3.1 Hyenas .......................................................................................................................... 18 3.3.2 Lions ............................................................................................................................. 21 3.4 Dietary partitioning ............................................................................................................. 22 3.4.1 Prey selection ................................................................................................................ 23 3.4.2 Dietary overlap ............................................................................................................. 23 3.4.3 Niche breadth ................................................................................................................ 24 3.5 Spatial partitioning .............................................................................................................. 24 3.5.1 Overlap ......................................................................................................................... 25 3.5.2 Den activity .................................................................................................................. 25 3.5.3 Den buffers ................................................................................................................... 26 3.5.4 Community land use ..................................................................................................... 26 3.6 Temporal partitioning .......................................................................................................... 26 3.6.1 Activity budgets ............................................................................................................ 26 3.6.2 Dynamic analysis .......................................................................................................... 27 3.7 Demographics ...................................................................................................................... 28 3.7.1 Hyenas .......................................................................................................................... 28 3.7.2 Lions ............................................................................................................................. 29 4. Results ................................................................................................................................. 30 4.1 Dietary partitioning ............................................................................................................. 30 4.1.1 Raw proportions ........................................................................................................... 30 4.1.2 Relative proportional contribution................................................................................ 30 4.1.3 Jacobs’ index ................................................................................................................ 32 4.1.4 Pianka’s index .............................................................................................................. 33 4 4.1.5 Levins’ index ................................................................................................................ 33 4.2 Spatial partitioning .............................................................................................................. 34 4.2.1 Home range and core sizes ........................................................................................... 34 4.2.2 Overlap ......................................................................................................................... 37 4.2.3 Den activity .................................................................................................................. 41 4.2.4 Den buffers ................................................................................................................... 42 4.2.5 Community land use ..................................................................................................... 45 4.3 Temporal partitioning .......................................................................................................... 46 4.3.1 Activity budgets ............................................................................................................ 46 4.3.2 Dynamic analysis .........................................................................................................