Quantifying the response of tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax validus) to human disturbance in the Udzungwa Mountains

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Quantifying the response of tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax validus) to human disturbance in the Udzungwa Mountains

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Title: Quantifying the response of tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax validus) to human disturbance in the Udzungwa Mountains
Author/Creator: Topp-Jørgensen, J Elmer | Marshall, Andrew R | Brink, Henry | Pedersen, Ulrik B
Description: Quantifying the effects of human disturbance on rare species is crucial for conservation. The eastern tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax validus), restricted to East Africa, is one of the region's least studied mammals. This study assesses the effect of hunting and logging on density and calling behavior. We evaluate three methods for estimating relative density: circular plot counts of calling individuals, latrine counts, and daytime transect counts. Circular plots show that the density of calling individuals within one forest is positively related to canopy cover. Furthermore we estimate densities of 17.3 calling individuals ha-1 in a little-disturbed forest, 12.1 in a lightly disturbed forest, and zero in an intensely hunted and formerly logged forest. Other methods support this trend, thus confirming that D. validus is dependent on intact forest. Estimation of hyrax density (and relative density) is however highly problematic and the magnitude of the trend varied between methods. Despite methodological problems, the results clearly highlight the discordance between Forest Reserve legislation and management, a conservation concern throughout the tropics.
Relation: Tropical Conservation Science / Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.63-74
Relation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/194008290800100106
Year: 2008
Publisher: Mongabay.com
Subject: FoR 0502 (Environmental Science and Management)

Resource Type: Journal Article
Identifier: ISSN: 1940-0829
Rights: Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ - The license permits any user to download, print out, extract, archive, and distribute the article, so long as appropriate credit is given to the authors and source of the work. The license ensures that the published article will be as widely available as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific archive. Open Access authors retain the copyrights of their papers. Open access is a property of individual works, not necessarily journals or publishers.
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