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Spotted hyenas appeared near livestock enclosures more often in rainy months and on darker nights

Research: Ecology, Behaviour · Conservation: Human–wildlife conflict

For herders, a hyena near a livestock enclosure can be a warning sign—but an encounter is not the same as an attack. In central Kenya, researchers used camera traps at 12 enclosures to study when spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) appeared nearby.

The cameras recorded at least one hyena close to an enclosure on 151 enclosure-nights during monitoring between August 2018 and September 2019. The researchers compared how often, and when during the night, these encounters happened with rainfall, moonlight and temperature. Encounters were more likely in months with more rainfall and on darker nights. On hotter nights, hyenas tended to appear during the later, potentially cooler hours.

These patterns show that environmental conditions were associated with when hyenas encountered the enclosures. The study did not establish that the conditions caused the encounters.

Livestock losses are only one part of the interaction between people and carnivores. Recording when hyenas appear near enclosures captures an earlier step that can be missed if researchers look only at attacks or lost animals. Understanding when these encounters are more likely could help improve models of depredation risk and inform efforts to reduce conflict between livestock keepers and carnivores.

Sources and image credit

  1. The temporal environmental correlates of spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) encounters with livestock enclosures: Insights from central KenyaPrimærkilde. Den tilgjengelige abstracten bekrefter studiens tema, bruk av kamerafeller og miljøvariablene. Fulltekst var ikke tilgjengelig; detaljert retning på sammenhengene er kontrollert mot den sekundære kilden nedenfor.
  2. The temporal environmental correlates of spotted hyena encounters with livestock enclosures: Insights from central Kenya — detailed study summarySekundær oppsummering brukt for detaljer om studieoppsettet og retningen på de rapporterte sammenhengene. Den erstatter ikke primærkilden.
  3. Conservation Gateway: original abstract of Ahlberg et al., Conservation Science and PracticeAccessible reproduction of full authors' abstract with 12 bomas, 151 encounter-positive boma-nights and directions of associations for rain, moonlight and nighttime temperature.

Image: Ikiwaner / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Representative photograph. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

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