RT Journal Article
T1 Determinants of livestock depredation risk by Persian leopards in southern Iran
A1 Khosravi, Rasoul
A1 Julaie, Leila
A1 Fandos Guzmán, Guillermo
A1 Kuemmerle, Tobias
A1 Ghoddousi, Arash
AB Human-wildlife conflict is a major conservation challenge worldwide, with negative consequences for people and wildlife alike. Large carnivores, despite their key role in ecosystem functioning, are persecuted throughout their ranges as a response to perceived or actual risks to livestock and humans. To promote human-carnivore coexistence, a better understanding of the determinants of conflict is necessary. A range of factors have been hypothesized to influence livestock depredation risk, including carnivore habitat suitability and connectivity, prey availability, and anthropogenic factors. Yet, the relative importance of these factors is often unclear. We analyzed and mapped livestock depredation risk for the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in southern Iran using a species distribution modeling framework. We used livestock depredation reports and interviews (n = 199) from 25 randomly selected villages together with predictors capturing leopard habitat suitability, movement corridors, wild and domestic prey, and anthropogenic pressure. Our leopard habitat suitability and connectivity analyses predicted 28 core habitat patches (>250km2) associated with mountainous and conserved areas, with partly severed corridors between them. Our risk mapping indicated that the chance of livestock depredation increased in areas with higher leopard habitat suitability. Conversely, depredation risk was lower in areas with more wild prey. We predicted the highest depredation risk in about 12 % of the landscape where urgent conflict mitigation measures would be most beneficial. More generally, our study shows that while conservation areas provide refuge for carnivores, these areas can also lead to higher levels of conflict, hence mitigation measures should be prioritized in their surroundings.
PB Elsevier
SN 0006-3207
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119049
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119049
LA eng
NO Khosravi, Rasoul, et al. «Determinants of Livestock Depredation Risk by Persian Leopards in Southern Iran». Biological Conservation, vol. 291, marzo de 2024, p. 110510. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110510.
NO We are grateful to the Fars provincial office of the Department of Environment for permission to conduct this research in the conservation areas and for financially supporting the project (15398-212495). We also thank all interviewees who participated in our study. A.G. and T.K. gratefully acknowledge financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF, project SoMo, 01DK21003).
NO Islamic Republic of Iran
NO Bundesministerium für Bildung und Wissenschaft (Alemania)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025