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

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.

A ghost fence-gap: surprising wildlife usage of an obsolete fence crossing.

Wildlife fencing has become more prevalent throughout Africa, although it has come with a price of increased habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat connectivity. In an effort to increase connectivity, managers of fenced conservancies can place strategic gaps along the fences to allow wildlife access to outside habitat, permitting exploration, dispersal and seasonal migration. Wildlife can become accustomed to certain movement pathways and can show fidelity to these routes over many years, even at the path level.

Seroprevalence of Equine Herpesviruses 1 and 9 (EHV-1 and EHV-9) in Wild Grévy's Zebra ( Equus grevyi) in Kenya.

Equid herpesviruses types 1 (EHV-1) and 9 (EHV-9) are unusual among herpesviruses in that they lack strong host specificity, and the full extent of their host range remains unclear. The virus establishes latency for long periods and can be reactivated and shed, resulting in clinical disease in susceptible species. A sensitive and specific peptide-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed to study the seroprevalence of both viruses in a broad range of species among both wild and captive populations.

Testing the effects of perimeter fencing and elephant exclosures on lion predation patterns in a Kenyan wildlife conservancy.

The use of fences to segregate wildlife can change predator and prey behaviour. Predators can learn to incorporate fencing into their hunting strategies and prey can learn to avoid foraging near fences. A twelve-strand electric predator-proof fence surrounds our study site.

Testing the Prey-Trap Hypothesis at Two Wildlife Conservancies in Kenya.

Protecting an endangered and highly poached species can conflict with providing an open and ecologically connected landscape for coexisting species. In Kenya, about half of the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) live in electrically fenced private conservancies. Purpose-built fence-gaps permit some landscape connectivity for elephant while restricting rhino from escaping.

Prevalence of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi as well as the identification of associated ticks in sympatric Grevy's zebras (Equus grevyi) and donkeys (Equus africanus asinus) in northern Kenya.

The role of equine piroplasmosis as a factor in the population decline of the Grevy's zebra is not known. We determined the prevalence of Babesia caballi and Theileria equi in cograzing Grevy's zebras (Equus grevyi) and donkeys (Equus africanus asinus) in northern Kenya and identified the associated tick vectors. Blood samples were taken from 71 donkeys and 16 Grevy's zebras from March to May 2011.

Seasonal diet and prey preference of the African lion in a waterhole-driven semi-arid savanna.

Large carnivores inhabiting ecosystems with heterogeneously distributed environmental resources with strong seasonal variations frequently employ opportunistic foraging strategies, often typified by seasonal switches in diet. In semi-arid ecosystems, herbivore distribution is generally more homogeneous in the wet season, when surface water is abundant, than in the dry season when only permanent sources remain. Here, we investigate the seasonal contribution of the different herbivore species, prey preference and distribution of kills (i.

Understanding patch departure rules for large carnivores: lion movements support a patch-disturbance hypothesis.

We test two hypotheses that could account for patch departure by large mammalian carnivores. One hypothesis is the unsuccessful-hunt hypothesis, where carnivores leave an area after an unsuccessful hunt but continue hunting in the same area after a successful hunt. The second hypothesis is the patch-disturbance hypothesis, where carnivores depart the area after a successful hunt because of behavioral responses of prey to predator presence.