Gareth Kerry Hamilton Mann

Panthera · Leopard Program

The Blanford's fox (Vulpes cana) is a small canid species classified as Least Concern by the IUCN Red List. They predominantly inhabit mountainous regions in arid ecosystems across the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia and North Africa. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the species has been recorded only in limited localities and its population i...

The use of wildlife derivative products has been identified as an important aspect of the culture of African peoples. Integrated in traditional medicine, fetish, spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as in various culturo-religious ceremonies, it results in a thriving domestic and transnational consumer demand for different wild animals and thei...

The Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr is categorized as Critically Endangered, with < 200 individuals estimated to remain in the wild. Historically the species ranged over an extensive area of western Saudi Arabia but, with no confirmed sightings since 2014, investigating potential continued presence and distribution is of critical conservation...

The size of the home range of a mammal is affected by numerous factors. However, in the normally solitary, but polygynous, Leopard (Panthera pardus), home range size and maintenance is complicated by their transitory social grouping behavior, which is dependent on life history stage and/or reproductive status. In addition, the necessity to avoid co...

Spatial patterns of and competition for resources by territorial carnivores are typically explained by two hypotheses: 1) the territorial defence hypothesis and 2) the searching efficiency hypothesis. According to the territorial defence hypothesis, when food resources are abundant, carnivore densities will be high and home ranges small. In additio...

Territoriality (the defence of exclusive home ranges) is a strategy utilized within mammal populations to maximize individual fitness by monopolizing available resources. There is a trade-off, however, between acquiring the resources necessary for survival and reproduction and the cost of defending their exclusive use. Clarifying the sociospatial o...

Camera trapping can detect and monitor rare species in landscapes spanning thousands of square kilometres but placement of cameras in areas where the animals most likely occur will increase detection success. This vital information is lacking for the critically endangered Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr) that has undergone a 90% decline acros...

Effective conservation requires understanding the processes that determine population outcomes. Too often, we assume that protected areas conserve wild populations despite evidence that they frequently fail to do so. Without large‐scale studies, however, we cannot determine what relationships are the product of localized conditions versus general p...

Variation in home range size exists among and within wildlife populations. Home range size variation may be driven by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including sex, food and reproductive resources, density and competition. In this study, we investigated the sex‐specific impacts of prey and reproductive resources, conspecific density and compe...

This paper presents the first photographic record of a possible interspecific killing event between a North African wildcat Felis lybica lybica and a Blanford’s fox Vulpes cana. The camera trap image was taken in the area locally known as Wadi Thurabah, 50 km NNW of the town of Al Bahah in the Sarawat mountains of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Our p...

Apex predator reintroductions have proliferated across southern Africa, yet their ecological effects and proposed umbrella benefits of associated management lack empirical evaluations. Despite a rich theory on top-down ecosystem regulation via mesopredator suppression, a knowledge gap exists relating to the influence of lions (Panthera leo) over Af...

Wildlife population density estimates provide information on the number of individuals in an area and influence conservation management decisions. Thus, accuracy is vital. A dominant feature in many landscapes globally is fencing, yet the implications of fence permeability on density estimation using spatial capture‐recapture modelling are seldom c...

With human influences driving populations of apex predators into decline, more information is required on how factors affect species at national and global scales. However, camera-trap studies are seldom executed at a broad spatial scale. We demonstrate how uniting fine-scale studies and utilizing camera-trap data of non-target species is an effect...

Leopards (Panthera pardus) are the only free-ranging large predators to still occur naturally throughout much of Africa, but are vulnerable to habitat loss, ecosystem degradation and persecution. We used a systematic camera trap survey covering an area of ∼3100 km² in the Little Karoo, a semi-arid biodiversity hotspot in South Africa, to assess the...

Introduction Understanding how natural and artificial landscape barriers influence the movement of carnivores is important for conservation planning. Studies have shown that while both fences and rivers significantly influence carnivore movement, rivers are typically more impermeable to carnivores than fences (Blanco, Cortés & Virgós, 2005; Cozzi,...

The global decline of large carnivores demands effective and efficient methods to monitor population status, particularly using non‐invasive methods. Density is among the most useful metrics of population status because it is directly comparable across space and time. Unfortunately, density is difficult to measure reliably, especially for mobile, c...

Global distributions of most terrestrial large mammals have been dramatically reduced through the loss and fragmentation of natural habitat. These impacts are likely to be intensified by the effects of global climate change. Here we use two free roaming leopard (Panthera pardus) populations to explore the intersecting influences of climatic conditi...

Satellite telemetry is an increasingly utilized technology in wildlife research, and current devices can track individual animal movements at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. However, as we enter the golden age of satellite telemetry, we need an in-depth understanding of the main technological, species-specific and environmental fact...

R-code for boosted beta regression (Fix acquisition rate). (R)

Covariate partial effects on the variability of the fix acquisition rate. (PDF)

Tagged individuals per species. (PDF)

Covariate partial effects on the variability of the Overall fix success rate. (PDF)

Trends in observed data. (PDF)

Global dataset for boosted beta regressions. (CSV)

Description of data fields in S1 Data. (CSV)

Satellite telemetry articles published. (PDF)

Distribution of response variables and covariates. (PDF)

Unit purchase and operation costs. (PDF)

R-code for boosted beta regression (Overall fix success rate). (R)

Standardized data collection questionnaire. (PDF)

Satellite telemetry evaluations. (PDF)

Human impact is near pervasive across the planet and studies of wildlife populations free of anthropogenic mortality are increasingly scarce. This is particularly true for large carnivores that often compete with and, in turn, are killed by humans. Accordingly, the densities at which carnivore populations occur naturally, and their role in shaping...

Although interspecific competition plays a principal role in shaping species behaviour and demography, little is known about the population‐level outcomes of competition between large carnivores, and the mechanisms that facilitate coexistence. We conducted a multilandscape analysis of two widely distributed, threatened large carnivore competitors t...

The transformation and fragmentation of natural land are considered to be major drivers of biodiversity loss and local extinctions. In this study we compare medium-to-large mammal diversity on rangeland, game farms and natural land within the Little Karoo, South Africa. Mammal diversity was assessed using camera traps set up at 141 sites, and compa...

Camera traps are an increasingly popular tool for monitoring medium to large mammals, but the influence of camera trap placement on the detection probabilities of different species has seldom been investigated. In this study we explore the influence of roads on the detection probability of medium to large mammals in three vegetation types in the Li...

The coexistence of trees and grasses in savanna ecosystems is a contentious phenomenon. Fire and herbivory disturbances are often cited as major structuring forces that create a sustainable tree–grass relationship. However, periodic flooding of savanna patches may also enable coexistence. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of floo...

The coexistence of trees and grasses in savanna ecosystems is a contentious phenomenon. Fire and herbivory disturbances are often cited as major structuring forces that create a sustainable tree– grass relationship. However, periodic flooding of savanna patches may also enable coexistence. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of flo...

The angulate tortoise Chersina angulata is unique among South African tortoises in having a single unpaired gular (extension of the ventral plastron) that is used to ram and overturn rival conspecifics. This behaviour has earned it the reputation of a ‘fighting tortoise’, and in this paper we test the hypothesis that the morphology of this tortoise...