Assessing multi-decadal land-cover - land-use change in two wildlife protected areas in Tanzania using Landsat imagery.

Landscape change in and around protected areas is of concern worldwide given the potential impacts of such change on biodiversity. Given such impacts, we sought to understand the extent of changes in different land-cover types at two protected areas, Tarangire and Katavi National Parks in Tanzania, over the past 27 years. Using Maximum Likelihood classification procedures we derived eight land-cover classes from Landsat TM and ETM+ images, including: woody savannah, savannah, grassland, open and closed shrubland, swamp and water, and bare land. We determined the extent and direction of changes for all land-cover classes using a post-classification comparison technique. The results show declines in woody savannah and increases in barren land and swamps inside and outside Tarangire National Park and increases in woody savannah and savannah, and declines of shrubland and grassland inside and outside Katavi National Park. The decrease of woody savannah was partially due to its conversion into grassland and barren land, possibly caused by human encroachment by cultivation and livestock. Based upon these changes, we recommend management actions to prevent detrimental effects on wildlife populations.

A comparison of cat-related risk perceptions and tolerance for outdoor cats in Florida and Hawaii.

Risk perceptions and attitudes toward animals often explain tolerance for wildlife and management preferences. However, little is understood about how these relationships vary across different geographic regions and stakeholder groups. To address this gap in knowledge, we compared differences in acceptance capacity, risk perceptions, perceived enjoyment from outdoor cats, and experiences with outdoor cats among 3 groups (general public, conservation community, and animal-welfare community) in Hawaii and Florida, two states with large conservation challenges. We combined independently collected data from Florida and Hawaii, to determine how perception of the risks presented by outdoor cats, group membership, and state of residence influenced people's tolerance for outdoor cats. Florida respondents were significantly more tolerant of outdoor cats and less concerned about cat-related risks than Hawaii respondents (p < 0.05). In both states, animal-welfare group members reported greater enjoyment seeing cats and perceived a smaller increase in the cat population and lower levels of risk than other groups (p < 0.05). All groups exhibited similar relationships between acceptance capacity and enjoyment and the perceived increase in the cat population. Our results suggest public tolerance for cats varied due to the influence of local or geographical concerns, but that strongly held beliefs, risk perceptions, and feelings about cats explained more of the variance in stakeholder tolerance.

Costs and benefits of trap-neuter-release and euthanasia for removal of urban cats in Oahu, Hawaii.

Our goal was to determine whether it is more cost-effective to control feral cat abundance with trap-neuter-release programs or trap and euthanize programs. Using STELLA 7, systems modeling software, we modeled changes over 30 years in abundance of cats in a feral colony in response to each management method and the costs and benefits associated with each method . We included costs associated with providing food, veterinary care, and microchips to the colony cats and the cost of euthanasia, wages, and trapping equipment in the model. Due to a lack of data on predation rates and disease transmission by feral cats the only benefits incorporated into the analyses were reduced predation on Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus). When no additional domestic cats were abandoned by owners and the trap and euthanize program removed 30,000 cats in the first year, the colony was extirpated in at least 75% of model simulations within the second year. It took 30 years for trap-neuter-release to extirpate the colony. When the cat population was supplemented with 10% of the initial population size per year, the colony returned to carrying capacity within 6 years and the trap and euthanize program had to be repeated, whereas trap-neuter-release never reduced the number of cats to near zero within the 30-year time frame of the model. The abandonment of domestic cats reduced the cost effectiveness of both trap-neuter-release and trap and euthanize. Trap-neuter-release was approximately twice as expensive to implement as a trap and euthanize program. Results of sensitivity analyses suggested trap-neuter-release programs that employ volunteers are still less cost-effective than trap and euthanize programs that employ paid professionals and that trap-neuter-release was only effective when the total number of colony cats in an area was below 1000. Reducing the rate of abandonment of domestic cats appears to be a more effective solution for reducing the abundance of feral cats.

Patterns of hypothetical wildlife management priorities as generated by consensus convergence models with ordinal ranked data.

Managing wildlife in a publically acceptable fashion is challenging and frequently results in conflict among stakeholders. Several methods of group decision making or decision-making models have been suggested by philosophers and applied scientists to address such conflict. We propose a modification to the data collection process for consensus convergence models (CCM) that may allow wildlife managers to incorporate the priorities of hundreds of stakeholders into management decisions. Previous CCM have relied on small focus groups that represent the broader community to supply data. We propose collecting data via surveys using rank-ordinal data, which will allow managers to assess the priorities of the broader community rather than relying on representatives. By using survey (especially electronic) data rather than focus groups CCM may be modified into a tool that provides informatic solutions to environmental management. Before the proposed modification of the CCM is applied to any wildlife management decisions, several questions pertaining to how various components of a CCM affect the prioritization of management options must be addressed. We used hypothetical CCM to assess how the number of stakeholders, viewpoints, and level of opposition between viewpoints influences the results of a CCM. We found that while the number of stakeholders alone does not influence the results, the number of unique viewpoints does influence the prioritization of management options. If only two extremely opposed groups of stakeholders are engaged in a conflict, CCM will not aid decision-making because the model forces the two sides to compromise and meet in the middle. If an intermediate group is added to the model, then the CCM will favor the intermediate viewpoint, as the diametrically opposed viewpoints balance out each other. CCM are vulnerable to outliers, which can be mitigated by a large sample of stakeholders. However, CCM also lose clarity as the sample size increases. Therefore, the number of stakeholders included in the model should be determined a priori by power analysis. We conclude that CCM are an advantageous tool for analyzing complicated conflict with numerous viewpoints because they can digest information from hundreds of stakeholders, but that investigators should take care to collect data from a representative sample of stakeholders, including under-represented stakeholders, to avoid problems associated with a forced consensus.

The impact of community rehabilitation for acquired brain injury on carer burden: an exploratory study.

OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the relative efficacy of a community rehabilitation service and a more traditional outpatient service for carers of people with an acquired brain injury. METHODS: Seventeen carers who had received a community intervention were retrospectively compared with 24 carers who had received an outpatient service. Dependent variables were level of met family need, a measure of family dysfunction, carer psychopathology, and carer emotional acceptance. RESULTS: The community sample fared significantly better on all measures except carer psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that community-based services have efficacy for the carer and family. There is a clear need for large clinical trials using standardized instruments to establish what models of service delivery benefit carers.