A variety of Amazonian mammals serve as sources of food for its human inhabitants, but hunting can have a strong negative impact on them. Diversity, abundance, biomass, and average group size of medium-sized and large mammals are compared across two forest areas of the northern Amazon: the Viruá National Park (protected) and the Novo Paraíso settlement (a human settlement where hunting is permitted). Hunting pressure was also characterized in Novo Paraíso. A total of 33 mammal species were recorded. There were no significant differences in the sighting rates, relative abundance and biomass, and mammal group sizes between the two areas, although the totals of all these variables were higher in Viruá due to the higher abundance of Tayassu pecari, which was not recorded at Novo Paraíso. It is suggested that T. pecari may be on the verge of local extinction, as it was the most hunted species in the settlement area. Through interviews with 50 hunters, we estimate that 541 mammals of 20 species were hunted during the study year, resulting in an estimated biomass take of 8517 kg. While the hunting intensity in Novo Paraíso may be sustainable in the short term, the reported decline of hunting efficiency, combined with the extirpation of T. pecari, suggests that mammal abundance may decline there in the near future. In the study year, 849 hunts were carried out in a hunting effort of 4575 hours, with a maximum distance travelled of 5.4 km. There was an average of 4.82 consumers for each hunt, and a per capita harvest rate of 2.24 individuals/consumer year. Hunting was not only for subsistence, but also for retaliation, although some species may not be hunted due to cultural taboos. The need for quantification of harvesting rates to maintain hunting at sustainable levels is highlighted.

A key challenge for wildlife management is to handle competing goals. High ungulate densities may be desirable from hunting and recreational perspectives, but may come in conflict with needs to limit or reduce browsing damage. Since browsing intensity is negatively related to forage availability it may be possible to mitigate damage on forest by increasing forage availability within the landscape. A commonly used method to increase the attractiveness of a localized part of the landscape is to establish food plots. In a multiyear setup using enclosures, wildlife observations, field surveys, and controlled biomass removal, we studied food plots to document forage production, utilization by ungulates, and browsing on adjacent forests in southern Sweden. The fenced parts of the food plots produced on average 2230 to 5810 kg ha^-1 marrow-stem kale, second-year clover mix or early-sown rapeseed. The biomass of target crops was generally higher within ungrazed (exclosures) compared to grazed (controls) quadrats on the food plots, which demonstrates that the crops were used as forage by ungulates. Browsing on deciduous trees in the adjacent forest was higher within 70–135 m from the food plots compared to areas further away. For wildlife management, our study shows that establishment of food plots provides substantial amounts of forage both during growing season and at the onset of the dormant season, and that a large share of this food is consumed. Finally, our study documents that forage availability for ungulates at the onset of the often-limiting dormant season can be increased by fencing food plots throughout the growing season.

Coyotes Canis latrans, bobcats Lynx rufus and gray foxes Urocyon cinereoargenteus are all common mammalian mesopredators in coastal California and are found sympatrically in much of North America. Scats produced by these three animals are quite similar, but have historically been differentiated largely by morphology. I tested the efficacy of morphological classification of scat to species by building predictive models for species identification with a set of well-described, DNA-verified scats. I compiled a database of morphological, biogeochemical and contextual traits for a set of 122 DNA-verified bobcat, coyote and gray fox scats. I then took two different approaches to predictive modeling, using both discriminant function analysis and random forests to predict scats to species. I found significant differences among species in only three (diameter, mass and C:N ratio) of the 12 variables I considered. Linear discriminant analysis was only 71% predictive with the inclusion of a non-morphological variable in addition to morphological traits. Random forests similarly had only a 62% correct classification rate. Although scat morphology is not generally diagnostic to species for this set of mammalian mesopredators, these predictive morphometric models may still prove to be useful first-pass identification tools. The linear discriminant model in particular is able to identify scats with certain traits to species with a high degree of confidence, lending credence to the idea of ‘end member morphologies’ for scats produced by these different animals. I suggest that researchers take similar measurements to either use in the morphometric models presented here, or build similar models for their target species. These results also suggest that some previous studies using morphology-based scat identifications may have misrepresented or misinterpreted diets and space use by these sympatric mammals.

Data on the population size and trends of large carnivores remains the cornerstone of effective management and conservation programs. However, such data are rarely available for the majority of large carnivore species. Furthermore, large carnivore research is often directed towards formally protected areas. There is therefore a need to improve our knowledge regarding the population ecology of large carnivores in non-protected areas. In this study we use camera trapping in conjunction with spatially explicit mark—recapture models to estimate leopard Panthera pardus density across different land use types in the Waterberg Biosphere, South Africa. Estimated densities (mean ± SE) ranged from 6.59 (± 5.2/100 km²) on a matrix of commercial game and livestock farms to 5.35 (± 2.93/100 km²) and 4.56 (± 1.35/100 km²) on two protected areas (Lapalala and Welgevonden respectively). Although density estimates had large confidence intervals we suggest that these results indicate similar densities across the three sites. These results support other studies suggesting that non-protected areas can harbour as dense leopard populations as protected areas, and can therefore not be neglected in the management of leopards.

We investigated the survival and breeding success of common pheasants Phasianus colchicus of two origins and in two predator densities. We translocated hand-reared and wild pheasant hens to southern Finland (60°N, 24°E) and hand-reared ones to central Finland (63°N, 27°E). Both groups of birds were treated similarly before release and translocated to areas with no local pheasant populations. Both areas appeared similar, the only major difference being the amount of predators. The red fox Vulpes vulpes was the major predator of pheasants present in the southern study, where it was abundant, whereas it was almost non-existant in central Finland. In accordance with earlier studies, the wild birds survived much better than the hand-reared ones in the area with a high red fox density. The hand-reared birds located in the low red fox density area survived better than the hens in the area of high red fox density. However, no significant difference was observed in the survival of the hand-reared birds in the low fox density area and wild birds in the high fox density area. Interestingly, after the first two weeks, the survival of pheasants in different groups was equal. We additionally found no significant differences between the bird-groups in terms of hatching success when comparing hens that managed to initiate nesting. No difference was also observed between the hand-reared birds in the low fox density area and the wild in the high fox density area in brood survival to the age of six weeks. We conclude that even hand-reared pheasants can succeed in brood production in an area with low fox densities. We furthermore suggest that pheasants that survive the two first weeks after translocation have good chances of producing a brood whether they are wild or hand-reared.

Cameras at nest sites are becoming a common means for quantifying nestling diet, but there are two problems associated with this method: food items delivered to nestlings often cannot be identified, and quantification of error around diet estimates for individual nests is problematic. We present a novel method of incorporating unidentified food items into diet estimates and quantifying error around these estimates for individual nests. In our method, unidentified food items are accounted for by considering all of the possible ways in which they could be allocated among previously defined food categories (possible outcomes). We then calculate the probability of each possible outcome by assuming the probability that an unidentified food item belongs to any given category is equal to the proportion of identified items from that category. All possible outcomes, along with the probability of each, represent a probability space. We allocate the unidentified food items to each category according to the most probable outcome in the probability space when estimating the contribution of each food category to nestling diets. Confidence intervals around diet estimates for each food category are estimated by simulating many samples from this probability space and using kernel density estimation. We demonstrate the implementation of our method with data from motion-sensitive cameras monitoring Arctic peregrine falcon Falco peregrinus tundrius nests in Nunavut, Canada.