Abstract:
The range use patterns of adult leopards were used to examine the impact of environmental
quality on conservation area size in the arid south-western portion of the Kgalagadi
Transfrontier Park in southern Africa. The ranges of the leopards are the largest recorded
in the world, with a mean size of 2104.4 km2 (SEM 995.95 km2) for males and 1258.5 km2
(SEM 541.50 km2) for females. Overlaps in range use within and between the sexes and the
size of this conservation area make it possible to sustain a genetically viable population of
leopards in this arid environment.
CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS: When establishing conservation areas that contain large
carnivores in arid and semi-arid regions, prey abundance and range use should be considered
for the area to be able to sustain viable populations of such carnivores. The results emphasise
the importance of establishing large transfrontier conservation areas where individual
conservation areas are too small to do so. This study is the first to do so for leopards in
southern Africa.
Description:
J. du P.B. (University of Pretoria) was the project leader, was
responsible for the project design, did the field research,
collected the satellite GPS location details, analysed and
interpreted the results and wrote the manuscript, whilst
M.D.B. (Halls Head) did the ArcView and GIS analyses.