Forest carnivores are threatened globally by logging and forest fragmentation yet we know relatively little about how such change affects predator populations. This is especially true in Madagascar, where carnivores have not been extensively studied. To understand better the effects of logging and fragmentation on Malagasy carnivores we evaluated species composition, density of fossa Cryptoprocta ferox and Malagasy civet Fossa fossana, and carnivore occupancy in central-eastern Madagascar. We photographically-sampled carnivores in two contiguous (primary and selectively-logged) and two fragmented rainforests (fragments <2.5 and >15 km from intact forest). Species composition varied, with more native carnivores in the contiguous than fragmented rainforests. F. fossana was absent from fragmented rainforests and at a lower density in selectively-logged than in primary rainforest (mean 1.38±SE 0.22 and 3.19±SE 0.55 individuals km−2, respectively). C. ferox was detected in fragments <2.5 km from forest and had similar densities in primary and selectively-logged forests (0.12±SE 0.05 and 0.09±SE 0.04 adults km−2, respectively) but was absent in fragments >15 km from forest. We identified only two protected areas in Madagascar that may maintain >300 adult C. ferox. Occupancy of broad-striped mongoose Galidictis fasciata was positively related to fragment size whereas occupancy of ring-tailed mongoose Galidia elegans elegans was negatively associated with increasing exotic wild cat (Felis spp.) activity at a camera site. Degraded rainforest fragments are difficult environments for Malagasy carnivores to occupy; there is a need to prioritize the reconnection and maintenance of contiguous forest tracts.

Although the Near Threatened Eurasian otter Lutra lutra has been recovering in Europe since the 1980s nothing is known about population trends of the species in northern Africa. Ninety sites was searched for signs of otters in northern and western Morocco in 1983 and we repeated this survey in 2011. At each site we searched for otter spraints (faeces) or clear footprints along a maximum of 600 m of river bank, ending the search when the first sign was found. Overall results were strikingly similar in 1983 and 2011, with 36 positive sites and the same general distribution pattern of the species. Healthy otter populations appear to remain in the foothills of the Middle and High Atlas but the trend of populations disappearing from the relatively flat Atlantic slope has increased. The results are in clear contrast with the recovery of otter populations in Europe, probably because of differences in the implementation of environmental policies, especially regarding water pollution.

The aim of this study was to protect the bat community and roosting sites in the Dupnisa Cave System in the Yıldız (Istranca) Mountains in Thrace, the European part of Turkey, following the opening of the caves to tourism. We investigated the seasonal population dynamics and use of the cave system by bats, carrying out 15 surveys before (2002–2003) and 38 surveys after (2004–2008) the cave system was opened to tourism. We recorded 15 species of bats; the highest numbers recorded in a single survey were 54,600 hibernating and 11,000 breeding/nursing. Different parts of the cave system are used by bats to various degrees according to season. To protect the bats and the cave system the visitor schedule took into consideration the differences in seasonal use of the caves by bats. There was a significant increase in the total number of bats recorded in the cave system after opening for tourism, possibly because the gating of two entrances helped to control visitation. The results of our surveys of this cave system show that gating of entrances and visits by tourists are not necessarily incompatible with the use of caves by bats for both hibernating and nursing. Understanding how the three caves are used seasonally by the bat community, and for what purposes (hibernation vs nursing), was critical for the establishment of an appropriate management plan for tourism.

Information on the extent of bushmeat hunting is needed to assess the likely impact on hunted species, to provide information on the opportunity cost to local people of conservation, and to judge the efficacy of interventions at reducing pressure. However, where hunting is illegal, or socially unacceptable, respondents may not answer honestly to direct questions about hunting or consumption of bushmeat. We adapted a specialized method for investigating sensitive behaviours (the randomized response technique, RRT) and questioned 1,851 people in Madagascar about their consumption of six species, using either RRT or direct questions. For most species at most sites RRT and direct questions returned similar estimates of the proportion of the population who had consumed bushmeat in the previous year. However, RRT resulted in significantly higher estimates of bushmeat consumption in communities surrounding a protected area, where conservation activities made such questions sensitive. RRT has been predominately used in Europe and the USA; we demonstrate that it can provide a valuable approach for studying rule-breaking among people with poor literacy in low income countries. Between 12 and 33% of people across our sites had eaten brown lemur (Eulemur spp.), and 12–29% had eaten sifaka (Propithecus spp.) in the previous year. These results add to the growing body of evidence that hunting of protected species in Madagascar is a serious problem requiring urgent action. Conservation interventions to tackle bushmeat hunting will make questions about hunting or consumption more sensitive, increasing the need for researchers to use appropriate approaches for asking sensitive questions.

Recently the Sunda clouded leopard Neofelis diardi was recognized as a separate species distinct from the clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa of mainland Asia. Both species are categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Little is known about the newly identified species and, in particular, information from forests outside protected areas is scarce. Here we present one of the first density estimates calculated with spatial capture–recapture models using camera-trap data. In two commercial forest reserves in Sabah (both certified for their sustainable management practices) the density of the Sunda clouded leopard was estimated to be c. 1 per 100 km2 (0.84±SE 0.42 and 1.04±SE 0.58). The presence of the Sunda clouded leopard in such forests is encouraging for its conservation but additional studies from other areas, including protected forests, are needed to compare and evaluate these densities.

The Republic of Guinea has one of the highest diversities of mammal species in West Africa. However, its protected area network is poorly developed and little quantitative information has been available to help guide national conservation strategies. I therefore examined the distribution of antelopes and related species (families Bovidae and Tragulidae) across 17 sites, including four protected areas, to determine how the existing protected area network contributes to the conservation of antelope species and where action should best be focused for the conservation of this group. A total of 21 species of antelope have been recorded in the 17 sites; four of these species are absent from the four protected areas. An iterative heuristic complementarity approach was used to determine an irreplaceability index, which accounts for both species richness and species rarity, for each of the sites. The Kankan Faunal Reserve and Nimba Strict Nature Reserve have the second and fourth highest irreplaceability indices, respectively. The two other protected areas have moderate to very low irreplaceability indices, showing that they protect species widespread throughout the 17 sites. The Ziama Forest has the highest index (because it contains a high number of species and of globally threatened species), highlighting the significance of this site. I discuss the importance of the other sites and the threats affecting antelopes in Guinea, and make recommendations to improve the study and conservation of antelope species in the country.

Human–elephant conflict is a significant problem in Africa, undermining biodiversity conservation and development efforts. Early warning of crop raiding and a coordinated response from landholders and wildlife authorities are important for effective management of this conflict. Mobile phones have spread rapidly in rural Africa and could potentially be used to improve communication and increase the effectiveness of responses to crop raids by elephants. We analyse changes in patterns of communication around human–elephant conflict incidents before and after the arrival of mobile phone technology in Laikipia County in north-central Kenya, and the performance of mobile phone communication in a trial at three sites. We show that mobile phones can improve communication and reduce human–elephant conflict where there is good mobile coverage and widespread adoption. Conservation projects have much to gain from engaging with mobile phone technology.

Camera traps are standard tools for assessing populations of medium–large terrestrial mammals, particularly for rare, elusive or cryptic species, yet few researchers have attempted to employ camera traps to document rare primates in arboreal settings. We examined different arboreal camera-trap techniques to document the Critically Endangered greater bamboo lemur Prolemur simus in Madagascar. We documented P. simus at two sites, confirming presence at one site. Most species, including 86% of all lemur occurrences, were documented in low light conditions (c. < 105 lux). Our study suggests that camera traps can be effective in validating unconfirmed sightings of rare or secretive primate species. We recommend that future work with cameras in arboreal settings considers seasonal activity patterns, targets sites with high food densities, uses local knowledge, and utilizes available techniques (e.g. traditional trapping techniques) and landscape topography to concentrate animal movement (e.g. steep slopes or ridge lines).

A main concern of farmers worldwide is how to reduce crop losses to wildlife. Some potentially lethal crop protection methods are non-selective. It is important to understand the impact of such methods on species of conservation concern. Uganda has important populations of Endangered eastern chimpanzees Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii. Farmers sometimes use large metal mantraps to guard their fields against crop-raiding wildlife, particularly baboons Papio anubis and wild pigs Potamochoerus sp.. Chimpanzees that range onto farmland also step in these illegal devices and without rapid veterinary invention face severe injury or eventual death. Unlike inadvertent snaring of great apes in African forests, the problem of mantraps in forest–farm ecotones has received little attention. We report 10 cases of entrapped chimpanzees in the cultivated landscape surrounding Uganda's Budongo Forest during 2007–2011, undoubtedly only a portion of the actual number of cases. Mantraps currently present a substantial threat to ape populations in this important conservation landscape. Our data underscore the need for conservation programmes to consider the techniques used by rural farmers to protect their livelihoods from wild animals.

Aerial surveys have been used successfully to estimate vertebrate populations in open habitats. The marsh deer Blastocerus dichotomus, categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, lives in such habitats and is suitable for aerial counting because it is conspicuous. This species, the largest South American deer, is native to Argentina, Boliva, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru but no reliable information has previously been available on its populations in Bolivia. From May to August 2007 we conducted aerial transects to survey marsh deer in three large areas of savannah. We used a modified mark–recapture method to improve the accuracy of the counts and estimated density and abundance. The corrected, estimated density of the marsh deer was 0.24 km−2 in the northern La Paz Department, 0.12 km−2 in Mamoré and 0.15 km−2 in Iténez. These densities are similar to the mean density of the species on other South American savannahs. This is the first large-scale survey of the marsh deer in Bolivia and the first to provide information about the density of the species in the Amazon. We recommend the creation of protected areas in these savannahs, and wildlife and domestic health programmes to conserve the marsh deer of this region.

In 2008 Przewalski's gazelle Procapra przewalskii, endemic to the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, China, was recategorized from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The species is still, however, threatened, and the human population and accompanying domestic livestock are increasing around Qinghai Lake. Here we provide up-to-date information on the distribution and population size of the species, evaluate its current conservation status and discuss the difficulties of protecting this gazelle species. We used both distance sampling and total counts to survey 16 sites where the species has been reported and found it at 13 of these, occupying a total area of c. 250 km2. Population size estimated from distance sampling (1,635) and total counts (1,544) was similar. About 20% of the gazelles located were in newly discovered areas for the species. The results indicate an overall growth in the population of Przewalski's gazelle since 2003, although some subpopulations have declined or been extirpated. In spite of conservation efforts Przewalski's gazelle is still threatened by habitat degradation and loss, habitat fragmentation, fencing, intensified competition with domestic livestock and predation. Further growth of this gazelle population is constrained by limited habitat availability and human–gazelle conflict. We recommend that management and conservation strategies need to incorporate comprehensive knowledge of the gazelle, long-term monitoring, and captive breeding of injured and orphaned gazelles to form a potential pool of individuals for future reintroductions to the historical range of the species outside the Qinghai Lake basin.

Population density is an important parameter for monitoring and guiding conservation of small or threatened wildlife populations. Yet, despite the Vulnerable status of both species of clouded leopard Neofelis spp., and their disappearing tropical forest habitat, information on their population density is lacking from across their broad geographic ranges. Here we estimated population density of the Sunda clouded leopard N. diardi in the Maliau Basin Conservation Area in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, one of the first such estimates for either species of clouded leopard. With 25 camera-trap stations, each operated for at least 81 trap-nights, we obtained 59 detections of four individual Sunda clouded leopards in undisturbed primary rainforest but only a single detection in logged forest, despite similar sampling effort. Using spatially-explicit mark–recapture models, we estimated a density of 1.9 individuals per 100 km2 (95% confidence interval 0.7–5.4) for primary forest and 0.8 per 100 km2 (0.2–2.6) for the entire study area (including logged forest). These results will contribute to a better understanding of clouded leopard status and serve as a reference for future assessments of the species.

The emerging commercial farmers in Namibia represent a new category of farmer that has entered the freehold farming sector since Namibia's independence in 1990. Several assessments of agricultural training needs have been carried out with these farmers but the issue of human–carnivore conflict has not yet been addressed. This study investigated one of the key components driving human–carnivore conflict, namely the attitudes of these farmers towards carnivores and how this affects the level of conflict and carnivore removal. We observed that the attitudes of these farmers are similar to farmers elsewhere. In general, farmers reported high levels of human–carnivore conflict. Many farmers perceived that they had a carnivore problem when sighting a carnivore or its tracks, even in the absence of verified carnivore depredation. Such sightings were a powerful incentive to prompt farmers to want to take action by removing carnivores, often believed to be the only way to resolve human–carnivore conflict. Nonetheless, our study showed that farmers who understood that carnivores play an ecological role had a more favourable attitude and were less likely to want all carnivores removed. We found that negative attitudes towards carnivores and loss of livestock, especially of small stock, predicted actual levels of human–carnivore conflict. Goat losses additionally predicted actual carnivore removals. We discuss the implications of our findings in relation to the activities of support structures for emerging commercial farmers in Namibia.

Females in most populations of chiru or Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii migrate up to 350 km each year to summer calving grounds. These migrations characterize the Tibet–Qinghai Plateau. The Ullughusu calving grounds adjacent to the Arjinshan Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, China, are used by multiple chiru populations and this calving ground recovered from major poaching events in 1998 and 1999, with a population increase from 2001 to 2006. We used direct methods (vehicle/walking transects and radial point sampling) and an indirect method (faecal pellet counts) from 30 June to 4 July 2011 to assess the chiru population at this calving ground. We saw substantially more chiru with all methods in 2011 compared to 2006, demonstrating that the population has increased and suggesting that conservation efforts have been effective.

Our objective in this study was to determine the density of the jaguar Panthera onca from camera-trap data, using an open population model, in a private protected natural area, the Northern Jaguar Reserve, and 10 adjoining cattle ranches in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The region is considered a long–term jaguar conservation unit. As well as being the most northerly recorded reproductive population of the jaguar, the arid habitat of this region is atypical for the species. During 16 months of sampling we identified 10 individual jaguars and the data met the three main assumptions of open population models. The estimated mean density was 1.05±SE 0.4 individuals per 100 km2, with a constant survival probability of 0.94 and capture probability of 0.23. This estimate of density is lower than reported in studies of the jaguar from more southerly locations in Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Brazil but cannot be attributed to a single factor even though in general there is an apparent relationship between jaguar density and precipitation. The main objectives of the management of the Northern Jaguar Reserve are to reduce the impact of cattle and restore jaguar habitat, with strategies focused on water retention, removal of invasive grass, reforestation and environmental education. Livestock have been gradually excluded since 2003 and, combined with the protection provided under the agreements with the surrounding ranches, the area is now a suitable place for long-term studies of the jaguar.

The endemic Sumatran striped rabbit Nesolagus netscheri, categorized as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, is one of the rarest lagomorphs and little is known about its ecology, status or distribution. After nearly a decade with no published sightings, new camera-trap photos have been taken and observations made in Bukit Barisan Seletan and Kerinci Seblat National Parks, renewing interest in this rare species. We suggest that Bukit Barisan Seletan National Park is an ideal location to initiate a much needed ecological study of the species. Documentation and protection of a population in this Park would facilitate refinement of study techniques applicable to other areas in Sumatra, including Kerinci Seblat National Park, and thus facilitate an assessment of the status and distribution of the species. We believe that in light of ongoing encroachment and deforestation in many of Sumatra's protected areas it is important to implement immediate conservation initiatives in both parks to ensure the persistence of these known populations.

We carried out an in-depth analysis of a media campaign designed to raise awareness of the ecology and conservation of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope Saiga tatarica in the Pre-Caspian region of Russia. We carried out 250 semi-structured interviews in eight villages. The effectiveness of the campaign was assessed using change in opinion over the previous 3 years as an attitudinal indicator and amount pledged for saiga conservation as a measure of behavioural intention. The campaign induced positive changes in attitudes and behavioural intention. Reinforcement was important, with people's retention of information about saiga conservation from the campaign being positively correlated with their level of ecological knowledge about the species. Similarly, behavioural intention towards the saiga was more likely to be positive in individuals who had a high level of exposure to the species and/or had been subject to two or more different conservation interventions. Level of attitudinal change was dependent on an interaction between the date when the media campaign was carried out and the age of the respondent. We conclude that public awareness campaigns, if designed to take into account the socio-demographics and cultural background of the target audience, can be an effective method of improving attitudes towards conservation.

Human intervention is the main cause of the decline of the Critically Endangered European mink Mustela lutreola. In this study we analysed the main causes of direct human-caused mortality of the species in Spain. A total of 47 mortality records were obtained for the period 1950–1989, and 145 for 1990–2008. There was temporal variation in the cause of death, with trapping and shooting being the most common causes of mortality in 1950–1989 and road-kills in 1990–2008. In the case of road-kills there was variation related to road type. Males were more affected by road-kills than females, especially during the mating season when they range more widely. Our results indicate that there has been a change in human social behaviour and in people's awareness of the species, with a reduction in European mink captured and shot but an increase in mortality on roads.