Keeping up with the big cats
It's always a treat for us at NatureSpy to see footage come back from Musekese Conservation in Zambia!
The team at Musekese have been hard at work capturing incredible images of lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and painted dogs (plus many more species!). This is vital work for supporting wildlife conservation across a vast 2,700km2 wildlife protection zone. In this guest blog, Will Donald from Musekese Conservation gives us an update on Musekese's 2021 camera trap survey and shares some insights into what's next. Expect plenty of stunning camera trap images of big cats...
Guest blog by Will Donald at Musekese Conservation
Greetings from Musekese Conservation! My name is Will Donald, I am the research coordinator for Musekese Conservation and we have been partners with NatureSpy for the last two seasons. NatureSpy supports our vital camera trap studies that aid us in determining whether the anti-poaching patrols we conduct in the Musekese-Lumbeya Intensive Protection Zone (ML IPZ) are proving effective at increasing wildlife numbers. In this post, I will let you all know about our 2021 study plan, our results, and what we have in store currently for 2022!
Our 2021 survey: Revealing the distribution of 5 large carnivore species using camera traps
In 2021, NatureSpy provided us with 35 camera traps to conduct a first assessment of the mammal carnivores and herbivores within our core area of the ML IPZ. We placed these cameras approximately 5km apart, on roads and game trails, in order to maximise the chances of capturing mammals walking past. Cameras were placed in three deployment blocks, with each block being surveyed for a month.
Camera trap locations from the 2021 survey at Musekese.
From these cameras, we recorded 41 leopards across the entire core area, 15 hyaenas, two cheetahs, four wild dog packs, and three lion prides! Carnivore numbers within our core area of operations are massively on the increase, thanks to our anti-poaching efforts.
By partnering with NatureSpy and deploying these cameras within the core area, we have managed to show that all of the large 5 carnivores are using the entire core area as part of their home ranges. The map below shows their distribution in approximately 100km2 blocks of the core area – information we would only have been able to determine with these cameras and NatureSpy’s assistance. Leopard, hyaena and wild dog live all over the core area. Lion predominantly live in the Northern Section of the core, however also live along the Kafue River edge. Cheetah live all over but in very low perceived densities.
Above: Large carnivore distribution across the reserve.
Developing our camera trap survey in 2022: A closer look at carnivore and herbivore distributions
Moving onwards to 2022, there has been a massive change to our camera trap survey. This is due to three main problems with our initial design. First off, our survey only produced 1000 trap nights, which is not enough to make conclusions for both carnivore and herbivore distributions and densities – you need a minimum of 1400. Second, as cameras were only deployed for a month in one location, there were too few detections on the camera traps of predators. Finally, the cameras were placed too far apart to get recaptures across multiple cameras for individuals, which is needed to work out densities of predators.
To account for these issues, two major changes have occurred. Firstly, NatureSpy has provided us with an extra 15 camera traps, bringing our total to 50. This has allowed us to change our survey design which will mitigate these problems. Secondly, Panthera (one of our project collaborators working in Kafue National Park), who is doing a Kafue-wide Camera Trap survey, has teamed up with Musekese Conservation to conduct a camera trap survey within the core area of the ML IPZ. Panthera have provided 80 cameras which complement our 50, allowing us to have 130 cameras in the field at once. See our map below for our survey design.
Camera trap survey plan for 2022.
Cameras are being deployed for a minimum of 45 days – over double what they were previously, meaning there is almost double the chance of us detecting carnivores. Cameras are also placed closer together and in areas where predators are most likely to be captured (roads, large game trails, forest/grassland edges), which also means we are more likely to detect carnivores across multiple trap sites. If all goes to plan, we should have around 3,000 trap nights of data – over double what we need to make strong conclusions about the data we collect. Our cameras and are currently half way through their deployment and were recently checked by the research team, with some amazing findings, including some cheeky wild dogs and some stunning lion images below.
Another camera trap maintenance team.
A lioness chases a white-backed vulture away from a recent hartebeest kill (out of view).
A lion strolls by...
After this camera deployment is completed, for the remainder of the season we are intending to place our camera traps into an area that has never been previously surveyed within the ML IPZ. This area has not yet been decided, but we will keep everyone updated as the season progresses! Thanks again to NatureSpy for their massive support, we couldn’t conduct our work without their help!
Learn more about Musekese Conservation on our project pages and make sure you check out their Instagram for many more brilliant wildlife videos and photos!
Musekese Conservation use Browning camera traps for clear images of wildlife and long battery life in the field... and security boxes are essential for reducing damage from curious big cats, wild dogs and elephants! All photos and videos in this blog were captured using Browning Recon Force Advantage trail cameras, this model has now been superseded by the Browning Recon Force Elite HP5.
