Dataset Information

Using Africa's protected area network to estimate the global population of a threatened and declining species: a case study of the Critically Endangered White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis.

ABSTRACT: The White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis (WhV) is uncommon and largely restricted to protected areas across its range in sub-Saharan Africa. We used the World Database on Protected Areas to identify protected areas (PAs) likely to contain White-headed Vultures. Vulture occurrence on road transects in Southern, East, and West Africa was adjusted to nests per km(2) using data from areas with known numbers of nests and corresponding road transect data. Nest density was used to calculate the number of WhV nests within identified PAs and from there extrapolated to estimate the global population. Across a fragmented range, 400 PAs are estimated to contain 1893 WhV nests. Eastern Africa is estimated to contain 721 nests, Central Africa 548 nests, Southern Africa 468 nests, and West Africa 156 nests. Including immature and nonbreeding birds, and accounting for data deficient PAs, the estimated global population is 5475 - 5493 birds. The identified distribution highlights are alarming: over 78% (n = 313) of identified PAs contain fewer than five nests. A further 17% (n = 68) of PAs contain 5 - 20 nests and 4% (n = 14) of identified PAs are estimated to contain >20 nests. Just 1% (n = 5) of PAs are estimated to contain >40 nests; none is located in West Africa. Whilst ranging behavior of WhVs is currently unknown, 35% of PAs large enough to hold >20 nests are isolated by more than 100 km from other PAs. Spatially discrete and unpredictable mortality events such as poisoning pose major threats to small localized vulture populations and will accelerate ongoing local extinctions. Apart from reducing the threat of poisoning events, conservation actions promoting linkages between protected areas should be pursued. Identifying potential areas for assisted re-establishment via translocation offers the potential to expand the range of this species and alleviate risk.

SUBMITTER: Murn C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4761783 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Using Africa's protected area network to estimate the global population of a threatened and declining species: a case study of the Critically Endangered White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis.

Murn Campbell C Mundy Peter P Virani Munir Z MZ Borello Wendy D WD Holloway Graham J GJ Thiollay Jean-Marc JM

Ecology and evolution 20160122 4

The White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis (WhV) is uncommon and largely restricted to protected areas across its range in sub-Saharan Africa. We used the World Database on Protected Areas to identify protected areas (PAs) likely to contain White-headed Vultures. Vulture occurrence on road transects in Southern, East, and West Africa was adjusted to nests per km(2) using data from areas with known numbers of nests and corresponding road transect data. Nest density was used to calculate the ...[more]

PMID: 26941945

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND:The development of satellite tracking technology enables the gathering of huge amounts of accurate data on animal movements over measured time intervals, to reveal essential information about species' patterns of spatial use. This information is especially important in optimizing the design of conservation and management strategies for endangered species. In this study, we analysed the main drivers of daily patterns in the flight activity of the threatened Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus. We studied 19 Bearded Vultures tagged with solar-powered GPS transmitters from 2006 to 2016 in the Pyrenees (Spain). We assessed the relative influence of external factors (season and daylight time) and internal factors (sex, breeding season and territorial status) on their daily activity behaviour by computing mean hourly distance travelled, maximum displacement and cumulative distance travelled per hour. RESULTS:Our findings showed a clear difference in all the estimators between territorial and non-territorial (floating) members of the population, showing that non-territorial individuals spent much longer in flight and travelled larger distances per day. We detected an important influence of daylight time and season on the daily rhythms of Bearded Vultures; flight activity increased during the last three quarters of daylight and was greatest in the spring. Breeding period and sex had also an effect on the maximum displacement and cumulative distance travelled. Individuals flew more during the breeding period and females tended to exhibit greater cumulative and maximum distances per hour than males regardless of breeding season. CONCLUSIONS:Pyrenean Bearded Vultures flight daily activity was strongly influenced by daylight time, season, and territorial status, while individual sex and breeding season showed a milder effect on the birds' movement behaviour. This study gives a novel insight into how external factors act as main drivers of the daily flight activity pattern of a long-lived avian scavenger.

Project description:Supplementing endangered fish populations with captive bred individuals is a common practice in conservation management. The aim of supplementary releases from hatchery broodstocks is to maintain the viability of populations by maintaining their genetic diversity. Landlocked Lake Saimaa salmon (Salmo salar m. sebago) has been critically endangered for the past half-century. As a result of anthropogenic disturbance, especially construction of hydroelectric power plants, the Lake Saimaa salmon has become completely dependent on hatchery broodstock. Recently, habitat restoration has been done in one of the former spawning rivers with the aim of creating a new natural spawning ground for the critically endangered population. Hatchery fish releases have also been revised so that in addition to juveniles, adult fish from the hatchery and from the wild have been released into the restored river. We assessed here if a restored river stretch can be used as a natural spawning ground and juvenile production area with the aim of improving genetic diversity of the critically endangered Lake Saimaa salmon. By constructing a pedigree of the released adults, and juveniles sampled from the restored river, we found that the majority of the released adults had produced offspring in the river. We also found that wild-caught spawners that were released into the restored river had much higher reproductive success than hatchery-reared parents that were released into the restored river at the same time. We found no significant differences in genetic diversity between the parent and offspring generations. Meanwhile, relatedness among different groups of adults and juveniles varied a lot. For example, while the hatchery-reared females were on average half-siblings, wild-caught females showed no significant relatedness. This highlights the importance of using pedigree information in planning the conservation and management of endangered populations, especially when artificial propagation is involved.

Dataset Information

Using Africa's protected area network to estimate the global population of a threatened and declining species: a case study of the Critically Endangered White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis.

Publications

Using Africa's protected area network to estimate the global population of a threatened and declining species: a case study of the Critically Endangered White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets