TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘The human shield effect’: Human-wildlife co-occurrence patterns in the coffee forests of southwestern Ethiopia

AU - Rodrigues, Patrícia

AU - Dorresteijn, Ine

AU - Gimenez, Olivier

N1 - The work leading to this publication was supported by the PRIME program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), to PR (Projekt-ID: 57571791). OG was funded by the French National Research Agency (grant ANR-16-02CE-0007).The authors wish to thank previous funding that led to the dataset compilation used in this research: European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (FP7-IDEAS-ERC, Project ID 614278) granted to Joern Fischer. Likewise, the authors wish to thank the kebele, woreda, Oromia authorities and Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority for granting permits and for supporting research, the field guides and drivers for their assistance in fieldwork and the many student assistants that assisted with image classification. ID was supported by the Talent Program grant VI.VENI.202.098 financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of Leuphana University Lueneburg, EB-Antrag 201612-12. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

PY - 2023/9/1

Y1 - 2023/9/1

N2 - Understanding species (co)-occurrence patterns and how these are affected and mediated by humans is essential for the development of management plans to guide coexistence between humans and wildlife. Here, we evaluated two opposing hypotheses regarding the effects of humans on species occurrence: “humans as super-predators” and “humans as shield”, using an existing camera-trap dataset of mammal species occurrence collected in the coffee forests of southwestern of Ethiopia. We applied a multispecies occupancy modelling framework to explicitly examine co-occurrence patterns between humans, top-predators, prey, and crop-raiders, along a gradient of forest integrity (characterized by forest cover and fragmentation). We examined co-occurrence patterns during both coffee and non-coffee harvest seasons. Our results show partial support for the “humans as shield” hypothesis. We found (i) signs of co-occurrence between humans and prey in areas of low forest integrity during both survey seasons, and between humans and raiders during the coffee-season, (ii) signs of co-occurrence between prey and raiders during both seasons, (iii) no signs of negative or positive co-occurrence between humans and top-predators. Our findings indicate that a possible “shield effect” between humans and prey within a predator space, might be undergoing at the edges of coffee forests. Our findings suggest that incorporating humans as one more species in the ecological system can contribute to shed light into the effects of humans on species occurrence and ultimately contribute to inform management for coexistence.

AB - Understanding species (co)-occurrence patterns and how these are affected and mediated by humans is essential for the development of management plans to guide coexistence between humans and wildlife. Here, we evaluated two opposing hypotheses regarding the effects of humans on species occurrence: “humans as super-predators” and “humans as shield”, using an existing camera-trap dataset of mammal species occurrence collected in the coffee forests of southwestern of Ethiopia. We applied a multispecies occupancy modelling framework to explicitly examine co-occurrence patterns between humans, top-predators, prey, and crop-raiders, along a gradient of forest integrity (characterized by forest cover and fragmentation). We examined co-occurrence patterns during both coffee and non-coffee harvest seasons. Our results show partial support for the “humans as shield” hypothesis. We found (i) signs of co-occurrence between humans and prey in areas of low forest integrity during both survey seasons, and between humans and raiders during the coffee-season, (ii) signs of co-occurrence between prey and raiders during both seasons, (iii) no signs of negative or positive co-occurrence between humans and top-predators. Our findings indicate that a possible “shield effect” between humans and prey within a predator space, might be undergoing at the edges of coffee forests. Our findings suggest that incorporating humans as one more species in the ecological system can contribute to shed light into the effects of humans on species occurrence and ultimately contribute to inform management for coexistence.

KW - Human-wildlife interactions

KW - Mammals

KW - Multispecies occupancy model

KW - Shield effect

KW - Tropical forests

KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162271148&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.fooweb.2023.e00288

DO - 10.1016/j.fooweb.2023.e00288

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 36

JO - Food Webs

JF - Food Webs

SN - 2352-2496

M1 - e00288

ER -