Africa Wild

Media Release: Research & Management Interventions used to inform Predator Management

Date: 19th September 2013

South African National Parks (SANParks) has engaged in a challenging programme of restoring natural ecological processes, including predation by carnivores as a key means of conserving biodiversity in several of its small national parks.

This according to SANParks Managing Executive: Conservation Services, Dr Hector Magome who said learning from SANParks research work and field observations which commenced in 2010, jackals numbers are being removed from in some national parks such as Mountain Zebra and Karoo NPs. “This culling intervention is being implemented within SANParks’ strategic adaptive management approach which allows a suite of management tools to be tested in order to maximize knowledge gained and to enhance SANParks’ ability to manage national parks to achieve biodiversity aims.”

He said jackals are culled in accordance with SANParks Standard Operating Procedures for Lethal Population Management, which has been approved by SANParks Animal Use and Care Committee.

Dr Magome said the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth will analyse biological material from the culled jackals as part of existing research to further understanding of jackal diets, particularly when impacted by the presence of large carnivores such as cheetah and lion. In this way, SANParks seeks to maximize the learning gained from the culling exercise.

According to Dr Magome the establishment of large predators (such as lions and cheetah) may have created conditions that hamper natural regulatory mechanisms of medium-sized predators such as jackal. Declines of smaller herbivore species such as springbok, klipspringer and duiker, together with observed increases in jackal abundances, have raised concerns about a possible collapse of predator-prey dynamics in some of these small national parks.

“A number of hypotheses regarding the factors involved in such a collapse were proposed during the workshops involving SANParks scientists and managers. Firstly, robust fencing erected to contain larger predators is likely to prevent mature jackals from dispersing as they would in open systems, resulting in high jackal abundances and associated increases in jackal predation pressure.”

He said secondly, the presence of large carnivores such as cheetah, lion and spotted hyena can improve food availability for jackals through the provision of carrion, thereby enhancing jackal population growth. In addition low densities or absence of solitary carnivores such as leopard, known to kill jackal, potentially reduces jackal mortality rates. “A complex array of ecological processes may therefore have been disrupted at various levels within Frontier Parks, ultimately favoring jackal population growth.”

“Demographic studies on springbok, as an indicator a model of small herbivore species, have pinpointed predation on springbok lambs (less than 6 months old) by jackals as the cause of population declines in Mountain Zebra National Park. In Karoo National Park, springbok dispersed after the park was expanded, reducing springbok herd sizes and increasing their vulnerability to jackal. Here demographic studies indicated that springbok have been limited by small population sizes, a factor well established in animal population studies (the Allee effect), said Dr Magome.

Dr Magome emphasized that the management intervention through a combination of prey introductions and predator removals, specifically jackal removals, is therefore required to reduce the risk of local extinction of small springbok populations. “Existence of different combinations of predators and prey, as well as varying management intervention histories within the Frontier Parks, provides an opportunity to maximize learning during strategic prey reintroduction and jackal removal exercises which will be monitored as part of a registered SANParks research project”, he concluded.

Issued by:
South African National Parks (SANParks) Corporate Communications
Tel: 012 426 5203

Media enquiries:
Dr Hector Magome
Managing Executive: Conservations Services,
Tel: 012 426 5217; Mobile: 082 800 0874
Email: hector.magome@sanparks.org

Dr Howard Hendricks
Senior GM: Policy & Governance Conservation Services Division
Tel: 012 426-5165; Mobile: 083 640 5296
Email: howard.hendricks@sanparks.org

Those Parks have existed for many years...

A number of hypotheses regarding the factors involved in such a collapse were proposed during the workshops involving SANParks scientists and managers.

This sounds bad already...more expert help is required.

True, but lion and cheetah have been introduced recently (don't remember how many years ago, perhaps 3 or 4 )


BTW: What is "SANParks Animal Use and Care Committee"?

http://www.sanparks.co.za/conservation/ ... search.pdf

License to kill: legal culling of 900 000 jackals and caracals in Cape

Posted January 31, 2014 by Chloe Cooper


In 2011, members of the agricultural lobby in the Western Cape were legally permitted to kill just short of 900 000 jackals and caracals. That is more than its combined population. Issued as a means to control the problem of livestock loss, it’s a decision that could wipe out the Cape’s mid-level predator group entirely and result in the collapse of an ecosystem.

Mid-level predators – jackal and caracal – opportunistically kill young sheep and goats in the Western Cape. It is a problem no different to the human-wildlife conflict evident in other areas of Africa. There is no doubt that the agricultural industry is highly important to South Africa’s economy and the problem of predators killing millions of rands worth of livestock annually needs to be dealt with. However, the disconnect arises when one acknowledges that the number of permits issued far outweighs the total population of these animals. This permit to cull was extended to those requesting it into 2012. In 2013, CapeNature outsourced the cull through an agreement for farmers to self-regulate the culling, despite the chorus of protest from conservation groups. This is not a case of controlling the problem of livestock loss, it is a case of entirely wiping out a mid-level predator group and the resultant collapse of an ecosystem.

The authorisation to have jackals and caracals legally killed in 2011 was, in essence, an order to kill the highest number of an indigenous species recorded in Africa’s history. Each permit holder was permitted to kill five caracals and five jackals a day for 183 consecutive days. This adds up to a stupendous 894 250 individual kills. The Landmark Foundation, an organisation that strives to protect Southern Africa’s conservation economy, has called CapeNature out, arguing that it ‘orders the destruction of so many of these species, [while it] carries a mandate to protect our biodiversity! [and is] nothing short of a dereliction of duty.’

The decision to allow farmers to kill these mid-level predators is particularly shocking because there are a number of alternative methods being used throughout Africa to control the problems between predators and livestock. The reasons why the following methods are not tried and tested by Cape Nature is unclear:

Anatolian shepherd dogs are natural protectors of herds. These dogs are now widespread in Southern Africa, bred and trained by organisations like the CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund) and sold to farmers to protect their livestock from enemies.
Alpacas, originating in South America and successfully used by Australian farmers, are also being added to herds of sheep or cattle to ward off pesky predators.
The employment of herdsmen, similar to the lion guardian initiatives in Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia, is a multi-beneficial method for making sure livestock herds are protected.
The construction fences or kraals in which to keep farm animals is vastly under-utilised.

The permits distributed also broke conservation boundaries with regard to the nature of the execution of the jackals and caracals. In addition to authorising the death of more jackals and caracals than actually exist in the area, permit holders were allowed the use of highly unethical, taboo hunting practices that go against any conservationist’s moral compass. Call-and-shoot methods have been used whereby hunters purposefully call the animals out of hiding before shooting them; trained hunting dogs have been used to sniff out the predators; helicopters and artificial lights have been used on night hunts; and gin traps (banned in over 90 countries for its inhumane nature) are used and often referred to by farmers as the most effective method.

Gin traps (renamed ‘soft traps’, although there is nothing soft about their function) snap closed over whichever body part its victim has unwittingly placed into its metal jaws. The animal rarely dies straight away. If it is lucky, its paw may been cut clean off and it is able to limp away with a chance of survival, but most often it remains trapped and injured, ultimately dying of dehydration. ‘Soft traps’ are also responsible for 10 to 20 times more deaths than they are intended for. There is no control over which animals stumble across these metal snap-traps, and for every jackal or caracal that is caught, at least 10 other species see their unintended deaths. Members of the agricultural lobby...clearly state that ‘soft traps’ are vital items in farmers’ toolkits.

The culling license has been approved for 2014, meaning that the indigenous predators (and innocent bystanders) have been threatened with yet another year of uncontrolled, unethical deaths. The knock-on effect of taking out such important species will see the end of our cherished biodiversity, and the undoing of nature’s delicate balance.


The uncontrolled jackal culling operation takes non-target victims down its in path. Here, a rare brown hyena is proudly displayed by its hunter. Photo © Landmark Foundation

what an horror

It's disgusting!!

Shocking