Spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) habitat occupancy in a national park, hunting area and private ranch in western Zimbabwe
2018
Mhlanga, Mlamuleli | Ramesh, Tharmalingam | Kalle, Riddhika | Madiri, Tinaapi H. | Downs, Colleen T.
Estimating habitat occupancy is one of the methods used in assessing how large carnivores utilise their environment, thereby enabling conservationists to make informed decisions for conservation management. We modelled spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta habitat occupancy in western Zimbabwe using sixty camera stations in a national park, a hunting area and a private ranch. Mean occupancy of the spotted hyaena was ψ = 0.617, SE = 0.147 and ψ = 0.502, SE = 0.107 during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. Occupancy was high in clayey soils and grasslands in the national park and the safari area, a behaviour attributed to denning site preferences and possibly prey movement. Therefore, with changing land‐use, spotted hyaenas are likely to inhabit areas outside the national park as they search for food while restricting their dens to areas along grasslands that have clayey soils.
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