With human influences driving populations of apex predators into decline, more information is required on how factors affect species at national and global scales. However, camera-trap studies are seldom executed at a broad spatial scale. We demonstrate how uniting fine-scale studies and utilizing camera-trap data of non-target species is an effective approach for broadscale assessments through a case study of the brown hyaena Parahyaena brunnea. We collated camera-trap data from 25 protected and unprotected sites across South Africa into the largest detection/non-detection dataset collected on the brown hyaena, and investigated the influence of biological and anthropogenic factors on brown hyaena occupancy. Spatial autocorrelation had a significant effect on the data, and was corrected using a Bayesian Gibbs sampler. We show that brown hyaena occupancy is driven by specific co-occurring apex predator species and human disturbance. The relative abundance of spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta and people on foot had a negative effect on brown hyaena occupancy, whereas the relative abundance of leopards Panthera pardus and vehicles had a positive influence. We estimated that brown hyaenas occur across 66% of the surveyed camera-trap station sites. Occupancy varied geographically, with lower estimates in eastern and southern South Africa. Our findings suggest that brown hyaena conservation is dependent upon a multi-species approach focussed on implementing conservation policies that better facilitate coexistence between people and hyaenas. We also validate the conservation value of pooling fine-scale datasets and utilizing bycatch data to examine species trends at broad spatial scales.

中文翻译：

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利用兼捕相机陷阱数据进行大规模占用和保护：棕色鬣狗 Parahyaena brunea 的案例研究

随着人类影响导致顶级捕食者数量下降，需要更多关于因素如何影响国家和全球范围内物种的信息。然而，相机陷阱研究很少在广泛的空间尺度上进行。我们通过棕色鬣狗的案例研究展示了如何结合精细规模研究和利用非目标物种的相机陷阱数据是进行广泛评估的有效方法褐斑鬣狗. 我们将来自南非 25 个受保护和未受保护地点的相机陷阱数据整理成对棕色鬣狗收集的最大检测/未检测数据集，并研究了生物和人为因素对棕色鬣狗入住率的影响。空间自相关对数据有显着影响，并使用贝叶斯吉布斯采样器进行了校正。我们表明，棕色鬣狗的入住是由特定的同时发生的顶级捕食者物种和人类干扰驱动的。斑点鬣狗的相对丰度番红花步行的人对棕色鬣狗的占有率有负面影响，而豹子的相对丰富豹和车辆产生了积极影响。我们估计棕色鬣狗出现在 66% 的被调查的相机陷阱站站点中。入住率因地域而异，南非东部和南部的估计值较低。我们的研究结果表明，棕色鬣狗保护依赖于多物种方法，重点是实施保护政策，以更好地促进人与鬣狗之间的共存。我们还验证了汇集精细数据集和利用兼捕数据在广阔空间尺度上检查物种趋势的保护价值。