The evolution of the tourism sector has been subjected to massive changes in demand and technology, as well as increasing competition amongst destinations to such a degree that product diversification is now core to development strategies in order to maintain competitiveness and remain abreast of contemporary trends. The study sought to determine the demand for ecotourism products in view of developing a diversification strategy. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect demand-side data at Maun and Kasane airports; these data were then analysed quantitatively. Findings revealed a strong preference for wildlife/wilderness and nature products, whereas events and hunting were least liked. The country attracts mature tourists who prefer soft adventure and activities that prioritize conservation, interpretation, and environmental education. Factors related to entertainment, the construction of entertainment facilities, a post office, and golf courses were strongly resented. It was established that related diversification, focused on expanding services and enhancing existing products, is the most appropriate strategy. Practically, the research offers a specific diversification strategy based on ecotourism, detailing how and what to diversify. The study makes a valuable contribution to demand-side diversification literature as well as empirical research, which is lacking in Botswana.

Globally, anthropogenic land conversion has resulted in reduced natural land available for free-roaming wildlife, and a shift in species composition. Certain mesocarnivores exhibit an ability to adapt and expand distribution ranges under differing anthropogenic pressures. Our study addressed the socio-ecological attitudes and general perspectives towards mammalian mesocarnivores across a land-use gradient (rural–urban) from the uMgungundlovu to eThekwini municipalities of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We determined threats, conflicts and attitudes towards mammalian mesocarnivores using an online questionnaire survey. The public held a range of opinions on mesocarnivores. Participants from both land-use types generally regarded mesocarnivores as non-threatening and vital for the environment. However, not all mesocarnivores were regarded with equal benevolence. Black-backed jackals, Canis mesomelas, were consistently singled out as a problematic species by rural inhabitants and this intensified reactions when a confrontation occurred. Smaller and more behaviourally flexible mesocarnivores (mongoose spp. and Cape genets, Genetta tigrina) were the most observed species in both land-use types, indicating potential population increases. Vehicle collision was the leading cause of mesocarnivore fatalities. Overall, perceived impacts and threats of mesocarnivores differed across the land-use gradients. Our study illustrates the importance of citizen science and community engagement across a land-use gradient in wildlife conservation efforts.

Dramatic population declines of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) led to a managed metapopulation approach for wild dog conservation in South Africa. Monitoring the survival and habitat use of packs reintroduced into protected areas (PAs) is an essential part of adaptive management and improving the health and, ultimately, the survival of the metapopulation. Our study describes the territoriality and habitat selection of a pack of wild dogs reintroduced into Manyoni Private Game Reserve (219 km²) in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Despite being introduced into a small PA, the pack only utilized half their available space (121 km²) and avoided the central areas of the reserve. Post hoc analysis of African lion (Panthera leo) localities suggested competitive avoidance was a strong factor in shaping the habitat usage of the pack; however, further research is required. Habitat selection also varied seasonally and with denning. Ultimately, we showed that spatio-temporal analyses can help identify high-risk areas within wild dog territories, such as hotspots of activity along fencelines. These analyses can then be used to increase targeted management of these areas, such as improving the maintenance of well-used fencelines, which is an important consideration for the sustained success of the metapopulation across small PAs.

Rapid population growth of reintroduced lions (Panthera leo) poses several ecological and management challenges in small (<1000 km²), fenced wildlife reserves. Changes in the natural social-ecological conditions of reintroduced lions can lead to a breakdown of natural predator–prey relationships and this is undesirable from both a biodiversity conservation and wildlife management perspective. Here, we present lion population vital rates across 16 small, fenced reserves in South Africa to test whether varying social ecological conditions, associated with lion population structures, can drive changes in vital rates. Study reserves were categorized (A–D) according to the number of resident prides and male coalitions. Lion population structure within a reserve affected lion vital rates differentially, and lion population growth was highest in reserves that contained a single resident pride. The presence of more than one pride in a reserve resulted in a younger age at first birth and marginally longer birth intervals. The presence of extra-pride adult males reduced cub survival, lioness age at first birth and birth intervals. These results can inform lion management decisions and, in particular, how lion population structure affects management outcomes. Our results also inform appropriate management protocols for lions depending on the specific social and ecological context of an individual reserve.

In South Africa, blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) are routinely captured for relocation purposes. To monitor the stress caused by this practise, a non-invasive method assessing adrenocortical function as a measure of stress would minimize disturbance during sample collection. In our study, an adrenocorticotropic hormone challenge, and a mass-capture event were used to examine the suitability of five enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) for monitoring stress-related physiological responses using faeces as a sample matrix. The tested 11-oxoaetiocholanolone I EIA performed best, showing a 2126% increase above baseline after 22 h for a male, and a 474% increase for a female 23 h post-ACTH injection. Baseline faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations did not differ between animals captured on either day 1 or day 2 of the capture event, indicating that the frequent presence of a helicopter during the two days did not influence fGCM concentrations. However, during capture-related restraint for up to 10 h, an overall 1.5-fold elevation in (fGCM) concentrations was found. Storage of faeces at ambient temperature post-defecation indicated a fair stability of fGCMs for up to 8 h. The ability to reliably assess adrenocortical function provides a solid basis to examine endocrine responses to putative stressful circumstances in blue wildebeest.

Global COVID-19 responses by governments restricted international travel, imposed national lockdowns, reduced economies, and influenced people's livelihoods. Travel restrictions and national lockdowns may constrain international illegal supply chains of high value wildlife products such as rhinoceros (rhino) horn. We evaluated whether the COVID-19 lockdown responses by South Africa induced a poaching pause on rhinos in Kruger National Park. We collated information on poaching incidences from 2017 and made predictions for expected incidences during 2020 using trends noted between 2017 and 2019. Rangers observed substantially fewer incidences of poaching during South Africa's hard lockdown. As restrictions eased, poaching incidences increased. Despite the COVID-19 poaching pause, both black and white rhinos continued to decline in Kruger National Park as recruitment could not offset poaching and natural deaths.

Large (>15 kg) carnivores, namely lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus), African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), spotted (Crocuta crocuta) and brown hyaenas (Parahyaena brunnea), have been reintroduced to 16 private- and state-owned reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Objectives behind these reintroductions ranged from ecotourism, ecological restoration, to species conservation. We reassessed the reintroductions' objectives and updated their outcomes a decade after the initial assessment. Ecotourism and ecological restoration were the most common objectives for the reintroduction of top predators to these reserves. With one exception, these reintroductions were successful in meeting their specific objectives, as only African wild dogs have failed to re-establish in the province. Assessments for leopards and brown hyaenas were inconclusive due to a lack of monitoring data. Causes of objective- and species-specific failures in some reserves included founding same-sex populations, lack of breeding events and changes in reserve management objectives. Long-term monitoring is essential in managing and assessing the success of conservation actions, including reintroductions of threatened species. Our review demonstrates this by highlighting changed outcomes for populations and identifying new challenges that have arisen in the landscape. In the modern parlance of conservation marketing, the multi-species reintroductions that occurred within the Eastern Cape represent successful rewilding within the province.

Effective monitoring programmes are critical to understand and mitigate declining wildlife populations. In South Africa, the majority of oribi antelope (Ourebia ourebi ourebi ) occur on private rangelands as broadly distributed and highly-fragmented populations. Thus, to effectively manage such a species, conservation organizations rely on citizen science-led conservation initiatives, whereby members of the public provide data on oribi population demographics and potential threats. Using these data, we estimated the total oribi population size and assessed the population trend of oribi in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, over a 14-year period (2001–2014). We found that the oribi population has declined by 30% over the 14 years. However, oribi population estimates were highly correlated with the number of returned survey forms. This relationship makes it difficult to accurately assess population trends and almost impossible to determine if any changes in conservation management have influenced oribi populations. Thus, issues associated with citizen science and data quality (i.e. participation levels), may limit the ability of the oribi census to accurately inform oribi conservation and management. We discuss the value and limitations of citizen science in oribi conservation with the ultimate goal of improving citizen-led oribi conservation.

Human–wildlife conflicts may be unintended consequences of conservation successes and rewilding, and could be exacerbated where baselines around biodiversity have shifted. Mediating conflict is a conservation priority both due to its socio-economic impacts and due to consequences that negative perceptions of wildlife have for conservation outcomes. We document locally novel emergent conflict following reintroductions of large carnivores to fenced reserves in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Interviews with managers of 13 reserves (reintroduction sites) and adjacent properties show that reintroduced carnivores escaped from eight reserves (61.5%) and were recorded on 25 neighbouring properties (36.7%). Since large carnivore reintroductions to the Eastern Cape Province began in 1996, 75 associated conflict events were reported to the authors. This conflict was not evenly distributed, spatially or economically. Effective, evidence-based mitigation strategies are needed to ensure the continued success of conservation actions. Neighbours and policymakers should be primed for such lifted baselines where predator numbers and/or densities reflect what was historically observed. These conflicts should be anticipated and included in the early planning phases of reintroduction adaptive management processes. Conflict mitigation strategies for reintroductions should include lifting baselines to manage perceptions around recovering wildlife populations or face the prospects of re-extirpation associated with conflict-motivated retaliation.

Southern Africa has a diverse large carnivore guild. When this large carnivore guild is confined to fenced protected areas, the degree of intraguild competition may increase. Dietary overlap is a notable point of competition and can have considerable effects on lower trophic levels. We considered the prey preferences, dietary overlap, and dietary niche breadth of the large carnivore guild in Madikwe Game Reserve through direct observations and scat analysis, over one year of sampling. These data were analysed using the Jacobs' index for prey preference, the Pianka's index for dietary overlap and Levin's index for dietary niche breadth. Leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) had a high degree of dietary overlap and were specialized in their diet selection. Lions (Panthera leo), brown (Parahyaena brunnea) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) also showed a high degree of dietary overlap and had broad diets. Our results show similarities to those of open systems, suggesting that large carnivore diet selection may not be negatively affected when they are confined by fences. We recommend further investigations into the variables which may affect site-specific carnivore diet selection.

Low-cost uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become ubiquitous, and advanced UAV systems are affordable for many field ecologists and wildlife managers. Many hobbyist UAVs have been applied to ecological studies, but proprietary software limits their widespread application with little quantification with regards to their accuracy and efficiency in the creation of maps through photogrammetry. Our study addressed these concerns by evaluating a combination of an entry-level UAV and open-source photogrammetry drone mapping software as a low-budget mapping solution for ecologists. Geometrically accurate orthophotograph maps were created from flights at altitudes below 70 m with and without differential global positioning system (d-GPS) ground control points. Object measurement errors were constrained below 30 mm for altitudes up to 70 m, and errors fell below 10 mm at 30 m altitudes with d-GPS points and below 20 mm without the use of d-GPS ground control points. Our analyses provide guidelines that parameterize the requirements for the mapping of smaller areas. Ecological surveys that do not require <50 mm accuracy can benefit from the methods described here, and many ecological studies that are presently using costly software and UAV platforms could save when adopting this approach.

Despite the diversity of mesocarnivores and the broad geographic ranges of these species, our understanding of their behaviour and ecology at multi-species and community levels is limited. Our study was conducted between April and mid-July 2015 and used data collected over 105 days from 39 camera traps to quantify activity patterns of sympatric mesocarnivores in riparian and grassland habitats of Telperion Nature Reserve, South Africa. A total of 13 mesocarnivore species were detected within this relatively small (∼7350 ha) reserve. Sufficient records (≥10 records) were obtained for rusty-spotted genet (Genetta maculata), black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), otter species (African clawless otter, Aonyx capensis, and spotted-necked otter, Hydrictis maculicollis), serval (Leptailurus serval ), slender mongoose (Galerella sanguinea), yellow mongoose (Cynictis penicillata) and marsh mongoose (Atilax paludinosus). Generalized linear models were used to investigate whether species ID, temperature, vegetation characteristics or moon phase best predicted temporal activity. To assess which species had the highest potential for competitive interaction, we also quantified the coefficient of activity overlap. Our results show that species ID and temperature were the best predictors of mesocarnivore activity. Slender and yellow mongooses displayed the highest coefficient of activity overlap (0.90), followed by marsh mongoose and rusty-spotted genet (0.80), and serval and rusty-spotted genet (0.79). These species are likely to have the highest potential for competitive interactions, but preferences for different vegetation characteristics and variations in the estimated relative abundance may point to coexistence through spatial and fine-scale temporal partitioning. The other species exhibited lower coefficients of activity overlap with each other, suggesting they may coexist through temporal partitioning of resources.

Geographic gradients in plant productivity can present foraging large herbivores with varying resource levels across the range of a population, to which individuals can demonstrate varying intensity of selection. To investigate individually-specific responses of nyala antelopes (Tragelaphus angasii ) to vegetation greenness, we monitored the landscape use of eight telemetry-collared adult females, half at the wetter end and half at the drier end of Hluhluwe–iMfolozi Park, South Africa. We used remotely-sensed greenness as an index for plant productivity and data on canopy structure, and we compared the strength of selection for greenness between animals having different greenness averages within their home ranges. We found a decreasing pattern between home-range average greenness and strength of selection, which depended on season and presence of tree canopies. Animals in low-greenness home ranges tended to have stronger positive selection in closed-canopy vegetation in the dry season; those in high-greenness home ranges tended to have the stronger negative selection in open-canopy vegetation in the wet season. Our study emphasizes the possibility that a spatial resource gradient on a landscape might provide a valuable model of temporal change in a resource and an indication of potential for foraging animals to adapt to those changes.