Research methods
To reach the aims and objectives of the project a combination of methods is required. The ecological research will focus on the Greater Waterberg Complex (the farms, conservancies and communal areas around the Waterberg National Park), while the survey data will be collected from the wider Central North Namibia area.
- Literature review: Do a literature review of world-wide research on human-wildlife conflict with a focus on predators (2013).
- Camera traps: Use camers traps to identify individual leopards and cheetahs and count them. This data can be compared to previous data to see if there has been a shift in their relative numbers. Camera traps will also be used to identify places that are frequented by predators and which game (prey species) are available as food sources for predators (2014).
- CyberTracker: Use specially trained trackers ("Eco-trackers") with CyberTracker GPS devices to collect data on predator home ranges, hunting attempts, social behaviour and interactions with other species. Trackers will also collect scat samples which can be analysed for DNA and hair in order to identify individuals and prey species (2014).
- GPS collars: If funding can be obtained and if the tracking data are insufficient, predators will be captured using a combination of cage traps (for cheetahs, caracals and possibly leopards), foot loop traps (for leopards) and soft traps (for jackals) and be released again with modified GPS collars that will take hourly GPS readings (see GPS specs). This methods will mainly provide information on how (and if) predators avoid each other temporally as well as differences in prey preferences for each predator species (2014-2015).
- Survey: Data on current conflict between farmers and predators, the costs and benefits of the methods used by farmers and the occurrence of the different predator species on farms will be acquired using two questionnaires (2013).
- Data analysis: Since most of the data will include geo-spatial information (GPS points), analysis will mostly consist of GIS models and maps. Resampling methods will be used for any other statistical analysis. A cost-benefit analysis of the current methods used by farmers for preventing livestock depredation will be done. These data will be joined together in a final model (2015).
- Program: Write a decision support computer system that can be used by farmers and managers in order to calculate the "best" solution(s) for a certain farm and its circumstances (2019).
Feedback June 2018: Due to various unforeseen circumstances, mostly due to lack of funding, we were not able to
use GPS collars and the project has fallen behind schedule. We are currently in the process of data analysis and writing up the results in a thesis.
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