Can hyena behaviour provide information on population trends of sympatric carnivores?

ABSTRACT: Mammalian carnivores are declining worldwide owing to human activities. Behavioural indicators have the potential to help identify population trends and inform conservation actions, although this area of research is understudied. We investigate whether behaviour is linked to abundance in a community of carnivores in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Anthropogenic disturbance increased exponentially in parts of the Reserve between 1988 and 2017, mainly owing to daily incursions by large numbers of livestock and tourists. Previous research showed that hyena behaviour changed markedly during this period. Through a series of vignettes, we inquire whether hyena behaviours correlate with changes in abundance of hyenas themselves, or those of other carnivore species in the region. We find t

SUBMITTER: Green DS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6710562 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature