Abstract
The African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) has lost much of its historical range within South Africa. The remaining suitable habitat for the species includes both protected and unprotected areas in a fragmented landscape mosaic, bringing the species into close contact with human settlements. In order to make successful management decisions for the conservation of the species, more information is needed on leopard populations that exist in these highly fragmented habitats. The aim of our study was to determine the density of a population of leopards on Loskop Dam Nature Reserve (LDNR), Mpumalanga, South Africa. LDNR is located in a highly fragmented landscape and is surrounded by a variety of human settlements including game farms, livestock farms and rural towns. There are several smaller reserves 20–45 km away from LDNR, which may allow leopard movement and connectivity within the region. We determined population density by running a 164-day camera trap survey that covered a total area of 148.77 km2 within the reserve. Leopard density was estimated using Spatially Explicit Capture–Recapture models implemented in the program ‘secr’ in R using four different models. The most supported model was a sex-based model that allowed for differences in detection probabilities between males and females. The population density estimated with this model was 7.7 ± 2.0 (range 4.7–12.6) leopards per 100 km2. This density estimate in LDNR is comparable to other leopard populations in protected areas with similar habitat types and fragmented landscapes within South Africa. This study highlights that isolated, protected natural areas have the potential to harbour significant populations of leopards, which is important for the management and conservation of the species.
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Raw data and material are either published in the manuscript or available in data repository DANS (https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zvs-betq).
Code availability
All analyses were performed in R and the codes are attached as supplementary material.
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23 December 2022
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency for their support, especially Jannie Du Bruyn, Dr. Hannes Botha, Delecia Gunn, Tommie Steyn, Juan De Beer, Johan Eksteen & the MTPA game capture team. Special thanks to Jeanette Wentzel for her assistance with logistical planning and support throughout the project. We would also like to thank Dr. Philip Stott for his input into the project development. Thanks also to the students Herman Viviers, Tora-Lee Axelson, Max Peters, Parris Jeffries, Marco Gouws, Olivia Rynders and Mosa Molapo who assisted with field work activities.
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This study was funded from PhD student operating funds available from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at The University of Adelaide.
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DRM: project planning, field work, analysis and manuscript preparation/editing WSJB: project planning, analysis, manuscript editing LHS: analysis, manuscript editing GS: project planning, field work, manuscript editing JC: project planning, field work, manuscript editing, GJC: project planning, field work, manuscript editing, TJM: project planning, analysis, manuscript editing.
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Ethics approval was received from the University of Adelaide Animal Ethics Committee (S-2016-023) and the permit to conduct research on Loskop Dam Nature Reserve was given by the provincial municipality Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (TS3/11).
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Photo credit: Wayne S.J. Boardman
Leopard resting in a tree, north-western Mpumalanga, South Africa.
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Morris, D.R., Boardman, W.S.J., Swanepoel, L.H. et al. Population density estimate of leopards (Panthera pardus) in north-western Mpumalanga, South Africa, determined using spatially explicit capture–recapture methods. Mamm Biol 102, 1173–1183 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00179-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-021-00179-2