Publications by authors named "Simon G Dures"

The illegal poaching of lions for their body parts poses a severe threat to lion populations across Africa. Poaching accounts for 35% of all human-caused lion deaths, with 51% attributed to retaliatory killings following livestock predation. In nearly half of the retaliatory killings, lion body parts are removed, suggesting that high demand for lion body parts may fuel killings attributed to human-lion conflict.

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Conservation translocations have become an important management tool, particularly for large wildlife species such as the lion (). When planning translocations, the genetic background of populations needs to be taken into account; failure to do so risks disrupting existing patterns of genetic variation, ultimately leading to genetic homogenization, and thereby reducing resilience and adaptability of the species. We urge wildlife managers to include knowledge of the genetic background of source/target populations, as well as species-wide patterns, in any management intervention.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A new database has been created, containing over 1.6 million samples from 78 countries, which includes data on around 28,000 species experiencing various types of human impacts across different ecosystems.
  • * This comprehensive dataset, part of the PREDICTS project, offers a much broader perspective for analyzing biodiversity trends and will be publicly accessible in 2015, enhancing our understanding of ecological changes.
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