Browsing by Author "Elisa, Manase"

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    African wild dog population status in the Selous-Nyerere landscape, southern Tanzania: Insights from camera trap surveys
    (Elsevier, 2025-05-03) Parsais, Singira; Searle, Charlotte; Strampelli, Paolo; Moyo, Francis; Giliba, Richard; Haule, Leonard; Olesyapa, Kandey; Salum, Nasri; Hape, Germanus; Elisa, Manase; Lobora, Alex; Cotterill, Alayne; Doody, Kathryn; Dickman, Amy
    Despite being one of the world’s most endangered carnivore, there is a deficiency of recent information on the status of African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) in some of the few landscapes where viable populations are thought to still occur. One example is the Selous-Nyerere landscape in southern Tanzania, a critical stronghold for the species that has not been studied since the 1990s. We use data from seven camera trap surveys deployed over 4674 km2 in Selous Game Reserve (GR) and Nyerere National Park (NP) from 2020 to 2022 to provide an update on wild dog status in the landscape. We identified a total of 222 wild dogs, of which 38 % were male, 38 % were female, and 24 % were of unknown sex. We applied spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) modelling to the data from 2565 km2 of Selous GR to estimate an over-dispersion adjusted population density of 2.14 ± 0.45 adult and yearling wild dogs per 100 km2 (95 % confidence interval: 1.42 – 3.21). This study demonstrates the ways in which camera trap data can be used to improve our understanding of wild dog populations in data-limited settings, but also highlights some limitations of this data type for the species. Our findings suggest that the Selous-Niassa ecosystem is one of the most important remaining populations of wild dogs in Africa. Although this study did not directly investigate mortality, we recommend long-term monitoring and a number of conservation actions to tackle the species’ apparent threats in the landscape, and help secure this stronghold into the future.
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    Dataset: Population status of leopard in one of Africa’s largest wilderness areas and the challenge of monitoring at scale
    (Dryad, 2025-11-17) Searle, Charlotte; Strampelli, Paolo; Parsais, Singira; Haule, Leonard; Olesyapa, Kandey; Salum, Nasri; Mtoka, Samuel; Hape, Germanus; Mathayo, Daniel; Elisa, Manase; Lobora, Alex; Dickman, Amy
    Remarkably little is still understood about how the leopard (Panthera pardus) is faring in much of its remaining African range, despite the species’ importance for ecosystem function and generating funding for conservation via tourism. In this study, we address this knowledge gap in southern Tanzania’s Selous-Nyerere ecosystem, one of the largest intact wilderness areas on the continent, by estimating leopard population density via spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) modelling of data from seven camera trap surveys. Population density was highest in Nyerere National Park’s Matambwe sector (8.08 ± SE 1.54 adult and subadult leopards per 100 km2), followed by Selous Game Reserve’s Miguruwe sector (7.38 ± 1.26 per 100 km2); Nyerere NP’s Msolwa sector (6.05 ± 0.78 per 100 km2); Selous GR’s Liwale sector (5.93 ± 0.88 per 100 km2), western Kingupira sector (5.58 ± 0.87 per 100 km2), and eastern Kingupira sector (5.22 ± 0.71 per 100 km2); and Nyerere NP’s Kalulu sector (3.80 ± 0.64 per 100 km2). Together, our surveys covered an important component of extant leopard range in Tanzania, and our findings highlight the importance of the Selous-Nyerere ecosystem as a leopard stronghold. The estimates include the highest leopard densities yet documented in miombo woodland, which represents nearly one fifth of the species’ remaining African range. Unlike lion, leopard population density was highly correlated with relative abundance of preferred prey. Although limited by a small number of data points, this suggests that the two species may not be uniformly affected by anthropogenic threats. Threats to leopard in Selous-Nyerere include accelerating habitat conversion in boundary areas and bushmeat poaching, which impacts leopard indirectly by suppressing prey populations and directly via accidental snaring. Practical implication: Placed in the context of range-wide leopard monitoring, this study highlights the need to address persistent knowledge gaps on the species’ continental status and prioritise sites for monitoring based on their potential to inform evidence-based conservation management.