IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v23y2012i6p1257-1262..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Editor’s choice Impact of tourism on Nubian Ibex (Capra nubiana) revealed through assessment of behavioral indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Solomon A. Tadesse
  • Burt P. Kotler

Abstract

Behavioral indicators can provide critical information to conservation managers. Here we apply behavioral indicators based on foraging theory to quantify the effect of tourists on the critically endangered Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana). Ibex are habituated to human presence in En Avdat National Park, Israel; nevertheless, they exhibit heightened wariness of humans especially during the kidding season or when far from escape terrain. We applied behavioral indicators through the measurement of giving-up-densities (GUD, the amount of food that a forager leaves behind in a resource patch) and vigilance behavior to investigate the spatial and temporal variation in the patch use behavior of Nubian ibex under the influence of tourism. We hypothesized that Nubian ibex should treat the presence of tourists in a similar matter to the risk of predation. Our results show that the impact of tourism on ibex significantly varied both temporally and spatially in response to tourist activity. In regard to the temporal variation, ibex had higher GUDs on weekends when tourist activity was high than on weekdays. Furthermore, ibex GUDs were highest in the habitat most frequented by tourists, but only at times of high tourist activity. In a second experiment, the presence of tourists in close proximity always caused Nubian ibex to increase their GUDs in resource patches, even on a steep slope. The spatial position of the tourists up slope or down slope from the ibex affected both GUDs and vigilance behavior. The response was especially sharp when the tourists disturbed ibex from up slope, blocking escape lines. Even for this apparently well-habituated population of ibex, tourist presence significantly increased foraging costs as revealed by behavioral indicators. This study demonstrates how applying methods from behavioral ecology to conservation problems allows access to useful information that may be difficult to obtain using other approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Solomon A. Tadesse & Burt P. Kotler, 2012. "Editor’s choice Impact of tourism on Nubian Ibex (Capra nubiana) revealed through assessment of behavioral indicators," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(6), pages 1257-1262.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:6:p:1257-1262.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/ars110
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oded Berger-Tal & Tal Polak & Aya Oron & Yael Lubin & Burt P. Kotler & David Saltz, 2011. "Integrating animal behavior and conservation biology: a conceptual framework," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 22(2), pages 236-239.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Noemi Rota & Claudia Canedoli & Oscar Luigi Azzimonti & Emilio Padoa-Schioppa, 2023. "How Do People Experience the Alps? Attitudes and Perceptions in Two Protected Areas in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Katarzyna Nowak & Aliza le Roux & Shane A. Richards & Ciska P.J. Scheijen & Russell A. Hill, 2014. "Human observers impact habituated samango monkeys’ perceived landscape of fear," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 25(5), pages 1199-1204.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yael Lehnardt & Bob Bm Wong & Oded Berger-Tal & Leigh Simmons, 2019. "Intraspecific variation in animal responses to anthropogenic noise through long-term monitoring: a comment on Harding et al," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 30(6), pages 1514-1515.
    2. Melia G. Nafus & Jennifer M. Germano & Jeanette A. Perry & Brian D. Todd & Allyson Walsh & Ronald R. Swaisgood, 2015. "Hiding in plain sight: a study on camouflage and habitat selection in a slow-moving desert herbivore," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(5), pages 1389-1394.
    3. Yang, Tianxiang & Jing, Dong & Wang, Shoubing, 2015. "Applying and exploring a new modeling approach of functional connectivity regarding ecological network: A case study on the dynamic lines of space syntax," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 318(C), pages 126-137.
    4. Oded Berger-Tal & Alison L Greggor & Biljana Macura & Carrie Ann Adams & Arden Blumenthal & Amos Bouskila & Ulrika Candolin & Carolina Doran & Esteban Fernández-Juricic & Kiyoko M Gotanda & Catherine , 2019. "Systematic reviews and maps as tools for applying behavioral ecology to management and policy," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 30(1), pages 1-8.
    5. Jennifer B Tennessen & Marla M Holt & Brianna M Wright & M Bradley Hanson & Candice K Emmons & Deborah A Giles & Jeffrey T Hogan & Sheila J Thornton & Volker B Deecke, 2023. "Divergent foraging strategies between populations of sympatric matrilineal killer whales," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(3), pages 373-386.
    6. Muhammad Awais Rasool & Muhammad Azher Hassan & Xiaobo Zhang & Qing Zeng & Yifei Jia & Li Wen & Guangchun Lei, 2021. "Habitat Quality and Social Behavioral Association Network in a Wintering Waterbirds Community," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Kyoo-Man Ha, 2015. "Animals as valuable instinctive and ‘learned’ beings in the field of disaster management: a comparative perspective," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 75(2), pages 1047-1056, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:6:p:1257-1262.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.