applicability of age-based hunting regulations for african leopards对非洲猎豹狩猎法规适用性森严.pdfVIP

Applicability of Age-Based Hunting Regulations for African Leopards 1 1 2 Guy Andrew Balme *, Luke Hunter , Alex Richard Braczkowski 1 Panthera, New York, New York, United States of America, 2 Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom Abstract In species in which juvenile survival depends strongly on male tenure, excessive trophy hunting can artificially elevate male turnover and increase infanticide, potentially to unsustainable levels. Simulation models show that the likelihood of safe harvests can be improved by restricting offtakes to males old enough to have reared their first cohort of offspring to independence; in the case of African leopards, males were $7 years old. Here, we explore the applicability of an age-based approach for regulating trophy hunting of leopards. We conducted a structured survey comprising photographs of known- age leopards to assess the ability of wildlife practitioners to sex and age leopards. We also evaluated the utility of four phenotypic traits for use by trophy hunters to age male leopards in the field. Our logistic regression models showed that male leopard age affected the likelihood of survey respondents identifying the correct sex; notably, males ,2 years were typically misidentified as females, while mature males ($4 years) were sexed correctly. Mature male leopards were also more likely to be aged correctly, as were portrait photographs. Aging proficiency was also influenced by the profession of respondents, with hunters recording the lowest scores. A discriminant model including dewlap size, the condition of the ears, and the extent of facial scarring accurately discriminated among male leopard age classes. Model classification rates