Leopard Hunting: Norms & Standards Draft Comment Now

BRICKBURN

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Apparently, the lack of Leopard quota has some people concerned


https://www.africahunting.com/threads/leopard-situation-in-south-africa.25524/#post-243681

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/concern-over-leopard-hunting-quota.34855/#post-326909

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...opard-quota-a-huge-mistake.34789/#post-326349

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...g-in-south-africa-for-2017.34856/#post-326910

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/no-rsa-leopards-for-2017.34597/#post-324429


Then on February 8, 2017 a draft was released for comment. SEE ATTACHED PDF:

Have a read. It's interesting.

I have a copy of every article cited, but two that are unavailable to the public.
The fact there are two that are not available to the public pisses me off. How ware people supposed to comment on the content of the draft and the basis for it without the research on which it was based!
Bad form!:S 2 Cents:

It only took twelve hours of hard research to find it all. :A Type: :E Pissed:
It is finding the free stuff that is hard. A bunch of crooks want to charge you for other peoples journal articles. :A Shit:

As part of the proposed norms and standards

Here is the sample (practice exam) of the proposed test required to qualify to hunt Leopards:

http://www.saleopardhunting.com/practice-exam.html

There is a well developed EDUCATIONAL SECTION follow the links:

Pocket Guide to Leopard Aging:

http://www.saleopardhunting.com/uploads/4/3/3/1/43316401/panthera_leopardagingtrifold_print.pdf

Full length course material:
http://www.saleopardhunting.com/upl..._education_and_identification_course_-_v1.pdf


Known age Leopard pictures:
http://www.saleopardhunting.com/known-age-leopard.html




There are two guys that are central players in this process.
These are THE researchers involved in just about everything you can find on the subject:

Dr. Guy Balme
GuyBalme.jpg


Dr. Lourens Swanepoel
Lourens_Swanepoel.jpg


They are both members of the "Scientific Authority". The guys that drive the draft and funny enough, quote their own research in said draft. Not quite an independent body. (Hard to get away from it really)


SCIENTIFIC Authority members.jpg



This is the list of researchers and Institutions and contact details for lead researchers in the cited articles in the draft proposal.

The left Column is the count of the number of times the named researcher's research was cited in the draft.

researchers and institutions.jpg


A distribution of content of the citations in the draft.

Norms Stand Citation chart.jpg



When you really start to read it there are a few concerns ............


The biggest one I would have is the Age requirement. Not that we should not be targeting older Males, but that a very specific age is set. ie. Copying Tanzanian Lion criteria.

This is a defacto reduction in Quota based on unproven hypotheses. Namely that a Leopard population will be affected in the same manner as a Lion population by hunting. (Large Carnivore lumping)
There are quantifiable differences between the two "felids" beyond that absence of spots. Gregarious social animals or reclusive loners that raise young within those differing structures. Suggesting this restrictive structure without the science to back it up!

AGE

Large felids are especially susceptible to overhunting due to their complex social systems which
depend on the stability of long -term relationships (Caro et al. 2009).


An artificial increase in turnover and immigration rates can increase contact between unfamiliar individuals and promote intraspecific strife. Unnaturally high turnover among adult males may also increase infanticide, potentially to unsustainable levels (Whitman et al. 2007, Balme et al. 2009). Solitary species such as leopards appear particularly sensitive to infanticide as females cannot rely on cooperative defence against incoming males (Balme & Hunter 2013).


LION VS LEOPARD


Packer et al. (2009) showed that harvesting male leopards >_7 years old had little impact on population
persistence, regardless of the extent of offtake. By this age, males have held tenure for long enough to
allow at least one litter to reach independence, which is sufficient to maintain population stability.

Implementing a strict seven -year age minimum for trophy leopards would dramatically reduce the risk of
overharvesting despite uncertainties in population sizes. it would also ease pressure from the
inequitable distribution of hunting effort as local population recruitment will improve (Balme et al. 2009).


HUNTING EFFORT DISTRIBUTION


Use of Leopard Hunting Zones (LHZ )
ZONES EFFORT

catch -per -unit- effort (CPUE)
An increase in the effort required to secure a trophy infers a proportional decrease in population size, and vice versa. CPUE is most commonly applied in fisheries management, but it has also been used in terrestrial hunting systems (Bunnefeld et al. 2014, Edwards et al. 2014).


However, the success of leopard hunts is also dependent on the number of baits deployed by hunters, the frequency that baits are replaced, and whether an area was pre- baited (Edwards et al. 2014).




This list was "cherry picked". There is plenty of other research out there to draw from. Some from the same lead authors:

Published February 8, 2017 for comment. Literature cited:

1. Anderson CR, Lindzey FG (2005) Experimental evaluation of population trend and harvest composition
in a Wyoming cougar population. Wildlife Soc B 33: 179 -188.

2. Balme GA, Hunter LTB, Slotow R (2009) Impact of conservation interventions on the dynamics and
persistence of a persecuted leopard population. Biol Cons 142: 2681 -2690.

3. Balme GA, Hunter LTB, Goodman P, Ferguson H, Craigie J, et al. (2010) An adaptive management
approach to trophy hunting of leopards: A case study from KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. In:
4. Macdonald DW, Loveridge A, editors. Biology and conservation of wild felids. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. pp. 341 -352.

5. Balme GA, Chapman S, Kelly C, Morgan S, Hue C, et al (2013) KwaZulu -Natal Leopard Monitoring
Project 2013 Annual Report. Report for Ezemvelo KwaZulu -Natal Wildlife. Cape Town: Panthera.


6. Balme GA, Hunter LTB (2013) Why leopards commit infanticide. Anim Behav 86: 791 -799.

7. Braczkowski A, Balme GA, Dickman, Macdonald DW, Fattebert J, Dickerson T, Johnson P, Hunter
TB (2015) Who bites the bullet first? The use of harvest composition as a metric of leopard
population trend. PLoS One: in press.


8. Bunnefeld N, Edwards CT, Atickem A ,Hailu F, Milner -Gulland (2013) incentivizing monitoring and
compliance in trophy hunting. Cons Biol 27: 1344-1354.

9. Cooley HS, Wielgus RB, Koehler GB, Robinson HS, Maletzke BT (2009) Does hunting regulate cougar
populations? A test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis. Ecol 90: 2913 -2921.

10. Edwards CTT, Bunnefeld N, Balme GA, Milner -Gulland EJ (2014) Data -poor management of African
Lion hunting: How to set quotas when population size is unknown. P National Acad Sci: in press.

11. Lindsey PA, Romanach SS, Davies-Mostert HT (2009) The importance of conservancies for enhancing the value of game ranch land for large mammal conservation in southern Africa J Zool 277: 99-105

12. Lindsey PA, Marnewick, K, Balme GA, Swanepoel LH (2011) Non detriment finding assessment for the
trophy hunting of leopards in South Africa. Report for the South African National Biodiversity
Institute. Johannesburg: Endangered Wildlife Trust.

13. Loveridge AJ, Searle AW, Murindagomo F, Macdonald DW (2007) The impact of sport- hunting on the
population dynamics of an African lion population in a protected area. Biol Cons 134: 548 -558.

14. Packer C, Kosmala M, Cooley H, Brink H, Pintea L, et al. (2009) Sport hunting predator control and
conservation of large carnivores. PLoS One 4: e5941.

15. Peebles KA, Wielgus RB, Maletzke BT, Swanson ME (2013) Effects of remedial sport hunting on
cougar complaints and livestock depredations. PIoS One 8: e79713.

16. Pitman RT, Swanepoel LH, Hunter LTB, Slotow R, Balme GA (2015) The importance of refugia,
ecological traps, and scale for leopard population management. Biodivers. Cons. 24: 1975 -1987.
The importance of refugia, ecological traps and scale for large carnivore management

Ross T. Pitman, Lourens H. Swanepoel, Luke Hunter, Rob Slotow, Guy A. Balme Biodivers Conserv (2015) 24: 1975.

17. Robinson HS, Wielgus RB, Cooley HS, Cooley SW (2008) Sink populations in carnivore management:
cougar demography and immigration in a hunted population. Ecol Appl 18: 1028-1037.

18. Stander PE (1997) Field age determination of leopards by tooth wear. Afr J Ecol 35: 156 -161.

19. Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ, Hoven WV, Dalerum F (2013) Extent and fragmentation of
suitable leopard habitat in South Africa. Anim Cons 16: 41 -50.

20. Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ., Van Hoven W, Dalerum F (2014) The relative importance of
trophy harvest and retaliatory killing of large carnivores: South African leopards as a case study.
S Afr J Wild! Res 44:115 -134.


SOME OF THE ISSUES:


Cited without being included in the Literature listing:
21. Caro TM, Young CR, Cauldwell AE, Brown DDE. Animal breeding systems and big game hunting: Models and application. Biol Conserv. 2009;142(4):909–929.
(You try and find an article with "(Caro et al. 2009)" as a start point. :A Blowup:


Cited but unavailable to the public for review:

Balme GA, Chapman S, Kelly C, Morgan S, Hue C, et al (2013) KwaZulu -Natal Leopard Monitoring
Project 2013 Annual Report. Report for Ezemvelo KwaZulu -Natal Wildlife. Cape Town: Panthera.

Braczkowski A, Balme GA, Dickman, Macdonald DW, Fattebert J, Dickerson T, Johnson P, Hunter TB (2015) Who bites the bullet first? The use of harvest composition as a metric of leopard population trend. PLoS One: in press.


Cited and misquoted the title emphasizing Leopard focus that is not correct:

Pitman RT, Swanepoel LH, Hunter LTB, Slotow R, Balme GA (2015) The importance of refugia,
ecological traps, and scale for leopard population management. Biodivers. Cons. 24: 1975 -1987.

The proper title does not specify Leopard:

The importance of refugia, ecological traps and scale for large carnivore management
Ross T. Pitman, Lourens H. Swanepoel, Luke Hunter, Rob Slotow, Guy A. Balme Biodivers Conserv (2015) 24: 1975.





Cited with a focus on LION:

Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ., Van Hoven W, Dalerum F (2014) The relative importance of
trophy harvest and retaliatory killing of large carnivores: South African leopards as a case study.
S Afr J Wild! Res 44:115 -134


Loveridge AJ, Searle AW, Murindagomo F, Macdonald DW (2007) The impact of sport- hunting on the
population dynamics of an African lion population in a protected area. Biol Cons 134: 548 -558.


Packer C, Kosmala M, Cooley H, Brink H, Pintea L, et al. (2009) Sport hunting predator control and
conservation of large carnivores. PLoS One 4: e5941.


Edwards CTT, Bunnefeld N, Balme GA, Milner -Gulland EJ (2014) Data -poor management of African
Lion hunting: How to set quotas when population size is unknown. P National Acad Sci: in press.




Cited with a focus on COUGAR:

Robinson HS, Wielgus RB, Cooley HS, Cooley SW (2008) Sink populations in carnivore management:
cougar demography and immigration in a hunted population. Ecol Appl 18: 1028-1037.


Cooley HS, Wielgus RB, Koehler GB, Robinson HS, Maletzke BT (2009) Does hunting regulate cougar
populations? A test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis. Ecol 90: 2913 -2921.


Anderson CR, Lindzey FG (2005) Experimental evaluation of population trend and harvest composition
in a Wyoming cougar population. Wildlife Soc B 33: 179 -188.


Countries where research was conducted in the cited research:
Ethiopia
Tanzania
Zimbabwe
USA
South Africa



The draft is a great place to start.
The thought and direction for having science drive the process is nothing short of commendable. If you are impacted by this draft I would suggest you get commenting to your minister.

Anyone interested in copies of the entire citation list just PM me you email and I'll send them off to you. :)

by the way you can thank @SS Pro Safaris for asking for this. I will be sending him an invoice for the 12 hours I have spent digging all this up. It is going to cost you a lot of rum Scott!:D Cheers::D Beer Bottle::D Barman:

I am going to open up a paypal account for donations to BRICKBURN RESEARCH!
 

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Last edited by a moderator:
@BRICKBURN I have not read the entire paper or all the cited research, that will be a project for tonight. However, I do find it somewhat concerning about an age restriction especially of 7 years on leopards. Given the circumstances of baiting and usually low light shooting conditions, I fell this would put the PH and hunter at risk. Even with dogs where the animals are usually moving quite a bit it might be hard to get an exact age. Comparing leopards to lions is apples to oranges as you mentioned given the family structure of pride vs loner. Thank you for reviewing in detail and getting this information.
 
The picture given in the PDF shows an obviously mature old fat leopard......but I wouldn't want to be the one making the call when the lights come on! Damn they are going to make it hard to hunt these critters.
 
@BRICKBURN I have not read the entire paper or all the cited research, that will be a project for tonight. However, I do find it somewhat concerning about an age restriction especially of 7 years on leopards. Given the circumstances of baiting and usually low light shooting conditions, I fell this would put the PH and hunter at risk. Even with dogs where the animals are usually moving quite a bit it might be hard to get an exact age. Comparing leopards to lions is apples to oranges as you mentioned given the family structure of pride vs loner. Thank you for reviewing in detail and getting this information.

The solution being posited by the draft is the generous use of TRAIL CAMERAS.

The other Solution is EDUCATION. Check that website out.

There is a large risk presented in the "incentivizing" section, ranging from fines and confiscation to criminal charges.
 
The picture given in the PDF shows an obviously mature old fat leopard......but I wouldn't want to be the one making the call when the lights come on! Damn they are going to make it hard to hunt these critters.

The goal is certainly to get the "dewlap" Leopards being the hunted quarry for sure.
 
@BRICKBURN, that got me totally lost. But no way you can mention lions and leopards in one sentence. Different ball game.
 
Apparently, the lack of Leopard quota has some people concerned


https://www.africahunting.com/threads/leopard-situation-in-south-africa.25524/#post-243681

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/concern-over-leopard-hunting-quota.34855/#post-326909

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...opard-quota-a-huge-mistake.34789/#post-326349

https://www.africahunting.com/threa...g-in-south-africa-for-2017.34856/#post-326910

https://www.africahunting.com/threads/no-rsa-leopards-for-2017.34597/#post-324429


Then on February 8, 2017 a draft was released for comment. SEE ATTACHED PDF:

Have a read. It's interesting.

I have a copy of every article cited, but two that are unavailable to the public.
The fact there are two that are not available to the public pisses me off. How ware people supposed to comment on the content of the draft and the basis for it without the research on which it was based!
Bad form!:S 2 Cents:

It only took twelve hours of hard research to find it all. :A Type: :E Pissed:
It is finding the free stuff that is hard. A bunch of crooks want to charge you for other peoples journal articles. :A Shit:

As part of the proposed norms and standards

Here is the sample (practice exam) of the proposed test required to qualify to hunt Leopards:

http://www.saleopardhunting.com/practice-exam.html

There is a well developed EDUCATIONAL SECTION follow the links:

Pocket Guide to Leopard Aging:

http://www.saleopardhunting.com/uploads/4/3/3/1/43316401/panthera_leopardagingtrifold_print.pdf

Full length course material:
http://www.saleopardhunting.com/upl..._education_and_identification_course_-_v1.pdf


Known age Leopard pictures:
http://www.saleopardhunting.com/known-age-leopard.html




There are two guys that are central players in this process.
These are THE researchers involved in just about everything you can find on the subject:

Dr. Guy Balme
View attachment 175969

Dr. Lourens Swanepoel
View attachment 175970

They are both members of the "Scientific Authority". The guys that drive the draft and funny enough, quote their own research in said draft. Not quite an independent body. (Hard to get away from it really)


View attachment 175972


This is the list of researchers and Institutions and contact details for lead researchers in the cited articles in the draft proposal.

The left Column is the count of the number of times the named researcher's research was cited in the draft.

View attachment 175973

A distribution of content of the citations in the draft.

View attachment 175971


When you really start to read it there are a few concerns ............


The biggest one I would have is the Age requirement. Not that we should not be targeting older Males, but that a very specific age is set. ie. Copying Tanzanian Lion criteria.

This is a defacto reduction in Quota based on unproven hypotheses. Namely that a Leopard population will be affected in the same manner as a Lion population by hunting. (Large Carnivore lumping)
There are quantifiable differences between the two "felids" beyond that absence of spots. Gregarious social animals or reclusive loners that raise young within those differing structures. Suggesting this restrictive structure without the science to back it up!

AGE

Large felids are especially susceptible to overhunting due to their complex social systems which
depend on the stability of long -term relationships (Caro et al. 2009).


An artificial increase in turnover and immigration rates can increase contact between unfamiliar individuals and promote intraspecific strife. Unnaturally high turnover among adult males may also increase infanticide, potentially to unsustainable levels (Whitman et al. 2007, Balme et al. 2009). Solitary species such as leopards appear particularly sensitive to infanticide as females cannot rely on cooperative defence against incoming males (Balme & Hunter 2013).


LION VS LEOPARD


Packer et al. (2009) showed that harvesting male leopards >_7 years old had little impact on population
persistence, regardless of the extent of offtake. By this age, males have held tenure for long enough to
allow at least one litter to reach independence, which is sufficient to maintain population stability.

Implementing a strict seven -year age minimum for trophy leopards would dramatically reduce the risk of
overharvesting despite uncertainties in population sizes. it would also ease pressure from the
inequitable distribution of hunting effort as local population recruitment will improve (Balme et al. 2009).


HUNTING EFFORT DISTRIBUTION


Use of Leopard Hunting Zones (LHZ )
ZONES EFFORT

catch -per -unit- effort (CPUE)
An increase in the effort required to secure a trophy infers a proportional decrease in population size, and vice versa. CPUE is most commonly applied in fisheries management, but it has also been used in terrestrial hunting systems (Bunnefeld et al. 2014, Edwards et al. 2014).


However, the success of leopard hunts is also dependent on the number of baits deployed by hunters, the frequency that baits are replaced, and whether an area was pre- baited (Edwards et al. 2014).




This list was "cherry picked". There is plenty of other research out there to draw from. Some from the same lead authors:

Published February 8, 2017 for comment. Literature cited:

1. Anderson CR, Lindzey FG (2005) Experimental evaluation of population trend and harvest composition
in a Wyoming cougar population. Wildlife Soc B 33: 179 -188.

2. Balme GA, Hunter LTB, Slotow R (2009) Impact of conservation interventions on the dynamics and
persistence of a persecuted leopard population. Biol Cons 142: 2681 -2690.

3. Balme GA, Hunter LTB, Goodman P, Ferguson H, Craigie J, et al. (2010) An adaptive management
approach to trophy hunting of leopards: A case study from KwaZulu- Natal, South Africa. In:
4. Macdonald DW, Loveridge A, editors. Biology and conservation of wild felids. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. pp. 341 -352.

5. Balme GA, Chapman S, Kelly C, Morgan S, Hue C, et al (2013) KwaZulu -Natal Leopard Monitoring
Project 2013 Annual Report. Report for Ezemvelo KwaZulu -Natal Wildlife. Cape Town: Panthera.


6. Balme GA, Hunter LTB (2013) Why leopards commit infanticide. Anim Behav 86: 791 -799.

7. Braczkowski A, Balme GA, Dickman, Macdonald DW, Fattebert J, Dickerson T, Johnson P, Hunter
TB (2015) Who bites the bullet first? The use of harvest composition as a metric of leopard
population trend. PLoS One: in press.


8. Bunnefeld N, Edwards CT, Atickem A ,Hailu F, Milner -Gulland (2013) incentivizing monitoring and
compliance in trophy hunting. Cons Biol 27: 1344-1354.

9. Cooley HS, Wielgus RB, Koehler GB, Robinson HS, Maletzke BT (2009) Does hunting regulate cougar
populations? A test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis. Ecol 90: 2913 -2921.

10. Edwards CTT, Bunnefeld N, Balme GA, Milner -Gulland EJ (2014) Data -poor management of African
Lion hunting: How to set quotas when population size is unknown. P National Acad Sci: in press.

11. Lindsey PA, Romanach SS, Davies-Mostert HT (2009) The importance of conservancies for enhancing the value of game ranch land for large mammal conservation in southern Africa J Zool 277: 99-105

12. Lindsey PA, Marnewick, K, Balme GA, Swanepoel LH (2011) Non detriment finding assessment for the
trophy hunting of leopards in South Africa. Report for the South African National Biodiversity
Institute. Johannesburg: Endangered Wildlife Trust.

13. Loveridge AJ, Searle AW, Murindagomo F, Macdonald DW (2007) The impact of sport- hunting on the
population dynamics of an African lion population in a protected area. Biol Cons 134: 548 -558.

14. Packer C, Kosmala M, Cooley H, Brink H, Pintea L, et al. (2009) Sport hunting predator control and
conservation of large carnivores. PLoS One 4: e5941.

15. Peebles KA, Wielgus RB, Maletzke BT, Swanson ME (2013) Effects of remedial sport hunting on
cougar complaints and livestock depredations. PIoS One 8: e79713.

16. Pitman RT, Swanepoel LH, Hunter LTB, Slotow R, Balme GA (2015) The importance of refugia,
ecological traps, and scale for leopard population management. Biodivers. Cons. 24: 1975 -1987.
The importance of refugia, ecological traps and scale for large carnivore management

Ross T. Pitman, Lourens H. Swanepoel, Luke Hunter, Rob Slotow, Guy A. Balme Biodivers Conserv (2015) 24: 1975.

17. Robinson HS, Wielgus RB, Cooley HS, Cooley SW (2008) Sink populations in carnivore management:
cougar demography and immigration in a hunted population. Ecol Appl 18: 1028-1037.

18. Stander PE (1997) Field age determination of leopards by tooth wear. Afr J Ecol 35: 156 -161.

19. Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ, Hoven WV, Dalerum F (2013) Extent and fragmentation of
suitable leopard habitat in South Africa. Anim Cons 16: 41 -50.

20. Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ., Van Hoven W, Dalerum F (2014) The relative importance of
trophy harvest and retaliatory killing of large carnivores: South African leopards as a case study.
S Afr J Wild! Res 44:115 -134.


SOME OF THE ISSUES:


Cited without being included in the Literature listing:
21. Caro TM, Young CR, Cauldwell AE, Brown DDE. Animal breeding systems and big game hunting: Models and application. Biol Conserv. 2009;142(4):909–929.
(You try and find an article with "(Caro et al. 2009)" as a start point. :A Blowup:


Cited but unavailable to the public for review:

Balme GA, Chapman S, Kelly C, Morgan S, Hue C, et al (2013) KwaZulu -Natal Leopard Monitoring
Project 2013 Annual Report. Report for Ezemvelo KwaZulu -Natal Wildlife. Cape Town: Panthera.

Braczkowski A, Balme GA, Dickman, Macdonald DW, Fattebert J, Dickerson T, Johnson P, Hunter TB (2015) Who bites the bullet first? The use of harvest composition as a metric of leopard population trend. PLoS One: in press.


Cited and misquoted the title emphasizing Leopard focus that is not correct:

Pitman RT, Swanepoel LH, Hunter LTB, Slotow R, Balme GA (2015) The importance of refugia,
ecological traps, and scale for leopard population management. Biodivers. Cons. 24: 1975 -1987.

The proper title does not specify Leopard:

The importance of refugia, ecological traps and scale for large carnivore management
Ross T. Pitman, Lourens H. Swanepoel, Luke Hunter, Rob Slotow, Guy A. Balme Biodivers Conserv (2015) 24: 1975.





Cited with a focus on LION:

Swanepoel LH, Lindsey P, Somers MJ., Van Hoven W, Dalerum F (2014) The relative importance of
trophy harvest and retaliatory killing of large carnivores: South African leopards as a case study.
S Afr J Wild! Res 44:115 -134


Loveridge AJ, Searle AW, Murindagomo F, Macdonald DW (2007) The impact of sport- hunting on the
population dynamics of an African lion population in a protected area. Biol Cons 134: 548 -558.


Packer C, Kosmala M, Cooley H, Brink H, Pintea L, et al. (2009) Sport hunting predator control and
conservation of large carnivores. PLoS One 4: e5941.


Edwards CTT, Bunnefeld N, Balme GA, Milner -Gulland EJ (2014) Data -poor management of African
Lion hunting: How to set quotas when population size is unknown. P National Acad Sci: in press.




Cited with a focus on COUGAR:

Robinson HS, Wielgus RB, Cooley HS, Cooley SW (2008) Sink populations in carnivore management:
cougar demography and immigration in a hunted population. Ecol Appl 18: 1028-1037.


Cooley HS, Wielgus RB, Koehler GB, Robinson HS, Maletzke BT (2009) Does hunting regulate cougar
populations? A test of the compensatory mortality hypothesis. Ecol 90: 2913 -2921.


Anderson CR, Lindzey FG (2005) Experimental evaluation of population trend and harvest composition
in a Wyoming cougar population. Wildlife Soc B 33: 179 -188.


Countries where research was conducted in the cited research:
Ethiopia
Tanzania
Zimbabwe
USA
South Africa



The draft is a great place to start.
The thought and direction for having science drive the process is nothing short of commendable. If you are impacted by this draft I would suggest you get commenting to your minister.

Anyone interested in copies of the entire citation list just PM me you email and I'll send them off to you. :)

by the way you can thank @SS Pro Safaris for asking for this. I will be sending him an invoice for the 12 hours I have spent digging all this up. It is going to cost you a lot of rum Scott!:D Cheers::D Beer Bottle::D Barman:

I am going to open up a paypal account for donations to BRICKBURN RESEARCH!

If this would help to get our quote reinstated, I will gladly obliged.

I believe Panhtera is feeding our Gov a fart. And they believe them whole hearted.

I quote
"The mere concept of shooting a big cat in the name of ‘sport’ nauseates me. I have spent my career working to conserve the world’s great cats, and have logged thousands of hours in their magnificent presence. When I watch a male lion grooming his cubs or see a female leopard haul a carcass her own weight up a thorn-tree, I am mystified that some people take pleasure in killing their kind with a high-powered rifle. I’m not especially averse to culling- like all wildlife biologists, my work occasionally necessitates killing animals, such as euthanizing injured wildlife- but it certainly isn’t fun. I simply do not understand what drives a hunter to shoot a creature as magnificent as a lion for a trophy and bragging rights."

Dr. Luke Hunter, Executive Vice President of Panthera


How can any research done by Panthera be fair??
 
Once they start talking aging then you know they want to screw with us. Using trail cams is not the end and be all. Those that have hunted many leopard know that from time to time a cat appears from nowhere and ends up on the same bait that has been visited by regularly by another cat. Now its easy to make a mistake.
I wonder how many of the cats they use for aging samples from Sabi Sand are permanently or semi permanently on bait to be able to show their high paying guests who need to see the big 5 in a weekend or single day sometimes . My dog would age differently if he had to fend for himself permanently....
 
@BRICKBURN, that got me totally lost. But no way you can mention lions and leopards in one sentence. Different ball game.

I think that is the reality for much of this type of report. Unless you read this stuff for a living and understand the jargon, it is easy to obfuscate and manipulate.

There is a definite "story line" being presented for sure.

The 6 hypotheses being presented surrounding "infanticide" in Leopard have not been proven.
The assumptions being drawn in relation to Lions and Leopard is certainly suspect.
 
If this would help to get our quote reinstated, I will gladly obliged.

I am certain that having a robust reporting and management plan in place will reinstate the quota. It is the affect of the model afterward, specifically, it's potential for manipulation that I would be concerned about. It needs to be much more transparent and understandable.


At the moment it appears they are about to turn RSA into a personal research project and not have to pay for the data collection or support. The costs will be transferred to the hunters; Genetic sampling and storage costs. (Hidden user fee.) I can only imagine the price tag on that one.

`
I believe Panthera is feeding our Gov a fart. And they believe them whole hearted. ............


Dr. Luke Hunter, Executive Vice President of Panthera

How can any research done by Panthera be fair??

He is certainly conflicted, as many are, about the nature and role of hunting.


image-20161006-32704-196up2v.jpg


"..................He is especially focused on developing and scaling up solutions to widespread retaliatory killing of big cats by rural communities, and on improving the protection of wild cat habitat. He also works on reducing the impacts of legal recreational hunting on leopard and lion populations in Africa;"
https://theconversation.com/profiles/luke-hunter-305982

In a positive sense this is a laudable goal. However, it is not a far stretch to interpret this as anti-hunting.
 
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Once they start talking aging then you know they want to screw with us. Using trail cams is not the end and be all. Those that have hunted many leopard know that from time to time a cat appears from nowhere and ends up on the same bait that has been visited by regularly by another cat. Now its easy to make a mistake.

The assumptions in the draft regarding the spread of hunting effort evenly across the various LHZ's would reduce Leopards moving into the vacuums "sinks" created by "over" hunting in any one area. Thus, it is assumed reducing the potential for "infanticide" of the litter in the area.
Evidently, it assumes that Leopards do not migrate on their own in the natural course of events.
Addressing these "rogue/transient" Leopards is lacking in the draft model.


I wonder how many of the cats they use for aging samples from Sabi Sand are permanently or semi permanently on bait to be able to show their high paying guests who need to see the big 5 in a weekend or single day sometimes . My dog would age differently if he had to fend for himself permanently....

Jan, are you trying to tell us that a Lion that gets fed three times a day in captivity could be fatter than a wild Lion that has to actively seek food?

Captive
925661350.jpg



Wild Lion
trail-2016-02-45627478fa.jpg
trail-2016-03-29b583708f.jpg

Perhaps, this logic regarding Lions is transferable to Leopards.
Leopards are known to be opportunistic feeders (lazy) and will return to specific feeding sites regularly (the whole basis of baiting). This behavior was obviously used in the feeding program at Sabi Sands.
Did that feeding program facilitate a nice set of "fat" Leopards at Sabi Sands with nice Dewlaps? It sure works for creating fat Lions.

There is very little research on Dewlaps.
Is there a large genetic component? ... a geographic component? ... a seasonal component?

J Bro-Jørgensen, Evolution of the ungulate dewlap: thermo-regulation rather than sexual selection or predator deterrence? Front Zool. 2016; 13: 33.

Lailvaux, SP et al. Ecol Evol. 2015 Oct; 5(19): 4400–4409.
The incredible shrinking dewlap: signal size, skin elasticity, and mechanical design in the green anole lizard

 

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