Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul: managing threatened predators of endangered and declining prey species

Zeke Davidson; Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux; Arjun Dheer; Laura Pratt; Elizabeth Preston; Saibala Gilicho; Mary Mwololo; Geoffrey Chege; Suzanne E MacDonald; C Patrick Doncaster

doi:10.7717/peerj.7916

Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul: managing threatened predators of endangered and declining prey species

PeerJ. 2019 Oct 15:7:e7916. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7916. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Zeke Davidson^#^{1

2

3

4}, Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux^#^{5

6}, Arjun Dheer^{1

3}, Laura Pratt^{1

3}, Elizabeth Preston^{1

3}, Saibala Gilicho², Mary Mwololo², Geoffrey Chege², Suzanne E MacDonald^{4

6}, C Patrick Doncaster³

Affiliations

¹ Marwell Wildlife, Colden Common, Winchester, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
² Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Isiolo, Meru, Kenya.
³ School of Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Lewa Wildlife Conservancy Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Conservation policy and practice can sometimes run counter to their mutual aims of ensuring species survival. In Kenya, where threatened predators such as lion deplete endangered prey such as Grevy's zebra, conservation practitioners seek to ensure species success through exclusive strategies of protection, population increase and preservation. We found strong selection for the endangered Grevy's zebra by both lion and hyena on two small fenced conservancies in Kenya. Despite abundant diversity of available prey, Grevy's zebra were selected disproportionately more than their availability, while other highly available species such as buffalo were avoided. Lions were therefore not alone in presenting a credible threat to Grevy's zebra survival. Conservation practitioners must consider interlinked characteristics of prey selection, resource availability and quality, the interplay between carnivore guild members and landscape scale population trends performance in wildlife management decisions.

Keywords: Endangered species; Grevy’s zebra; Hyena; Lion; Panthera leo; Predator; Wildlife management.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by core funding from Marwell Wildlife, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and students of the Marwell Wildlife and Southampton University MRes Wildlife Conservation course. Further funding for equipment was provided by Lewa Wildlife Conservancy Canada. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.