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Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up?
Includes bibliographical references.
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| Main Author: | |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Department of Biological Sciences
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613217737408512 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Woodgate, Zoe Anne |
| author2 | Balme, Guy A |
| author_browse | Balme, Guy A Woodgate, Zoe Anne |
| author_facet | Balme, Guy A Woodgate, Zoe Anne |
| author_sort | Woodgate, Zoe Anne |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Includes bibliographical references. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13032 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:38.580Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of Biological Sciences |
| publisherStr | Department of Biological Sciences |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13032 Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? Woodgate, Zoe Anne Balme, Guy A O'Riain, Justin Biological Sciences Includes bibliographical references. As protected areas ultimately aim to successfully conserve natural predator populations, an understanding of the non-anthropogenic drivers of their population change is critical. Both bottom-up (e.g. food limitation, competition) and top-down (e.g. predation, interference) processes play an important role in structuring predator guilds, yet there is a poor understanding of their relative importance. Here, I investigated whether the relative abundance of mesopredators, facultative scavengers, and an apex predator were affected primarily by bottom-up processes (prey abundance) or by top-down processes (predator abundance), or a combination of the two. Central to this study was elucidating the complex relationship between mesopredators and apex predators. Caracal (Caracal caracal), blackbacked jackal (Canis mesomelas), sidestriped jackal (Canis adustus), honey badger (Mellivora capensis) and serval (Leptailurus serval) were classed together as Mesopredators. Facultative scavengers included two hyaena species (spotted Crocuta crocuta and brownhyaena Hyaena brunnea). Leopards (Panthera pardus) were included as an example of an apex predator. Data was obtained from camera-trap surveys conducted in four protected areas located in northern KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). Results of both a nested analysis of variance and generalised linear mixed models revealed that there was no mesopredator suppression present in protected areas with complete predator guild. In addition, prey and similarly sized predator relative abundance indices (RAIs) had a significant positive effect on mesopredator, hyaena and leopard RAI. The findings suggest that bottom-up drivers are more important than top-down processes in determining the relative abundance of mammalian predators in these protected areas. My study highlights the importance of monitoring prey populations in a protected area when attempting to successfully manage mammalian predator trophic guilds. 2015-05-28T12:31:52Z 2015-05-28T12:31:52Z 2014 Bachelor Thesis Honours BSc (Hons) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13032 eng application/pdf Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Biological Sciences Woodgate, Zoe Anne Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| thesis_degree_str | Bachelor's / Honours |
| title | Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| title_full | Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| title_fullStr | Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| title_short | Determinants of predator abundance in northern KwaZulu-Natal: top-down or bottom-up? |
| title_sort | determinants of predator abundance in northern kwazulu natal top down or bottom up |
| topic | Biological Sciences |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13032 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT woodgatezoeanne determinantsofpredatorabundanceinnorthernkwazulunataltopdownorbottomup |