Testing the prey-trap hypothesis at two wildlife conservancies in Kenya

Protecting an endangered and highly poached species can conflict with providing an open and ecologically connected landscape for coexisting species. In Kenya, about half of the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) live in electrically fenced private conservancies. Purpose-built fence-gaps permit some landscape connectivity for elephant while restricting rhino from escaping. We monitored the usage patterns at these gaps by motion-triggered cameras and found high traffic volumes and predictable patterns of prey movement. The prey-trap hypothesis (PTH) proposes that predators exploit this predictable prey movement. We tested the PTH at two semi-porous reserves using two different methods: a spatial analysis and a temporal analysis. Using spatial analysis, we mapped the location of predation events with GPS and looked for concentration of kill sites near the gaps as well as conducting clustering and hot spot analysis to determine areas of statistically significant predation clustering. Using temp...保护濒危且遭严重盗猎的物种，与为共存物种构建开放且生态连通的景观栖息地之间可能存在冲突。在肯尼亚，约半数的黑犀牛（Diceros bicornis）栖息于架设电网围栏的私有保育区内。专门设置的围栏缺口可为大象保留一定的景观连通性，同时防止黑犀牛逃逸。我们通过运动触发式相机监测了这些围栏缺口的使用模式，发现该区域动物通行量颇高，且猎物的移动模式具有可预测性。猎物陷阱假说（Prey-trap Hypothesis, PTH）指出，捕食者会利用猎物这种可预测的移动规律。我们在两处半渗透性保护区内，采用空间分析与时间分析两种不同方法对该假说进行了验证。借助空间分析方法，我们通过GPS定位捕食事件的发生位置，探究了猎杀位点在围栏缺口附近的聚集特征，并开展聚类分析与热点分析，以确定具有统计学显著性的捕食聚集区域。通过时间分析