LB 5-43 - Modelling Wildlife Distribution Pattern After Fence Erection in Urban Forest Fringe Area

Background/Question/Methods:

Across the globe, presence of wildlife has currently increased and leaded to intense human-wildlife conflict in urban landscapes as a result of forest fragmentation and habitat loss. Wildlife also changes their behavioral strategies and adapted to urban environments. Fences are being used as effective tools to prevent roadkill and infectious diseases, and protect crops and forests. It is necessary to understand the behavioral patterns of species responding to fence erection. For the cost and efficient operation of fence installation, the change detection in the seasonal range of animals should also be considered. This paper aims to compare the distribution of wild boar and water deer considering crop rotation and to examine the corridor change of the two species after installing a fence in a place where the probability of presence is high in the growing season in fragmented area, Namyangju City in South Korea. To model the Water deer and the Wild boar distribution for each season, we adoped MaxENT and Circuitscape. Presence data of Water deer and Wild boar were collected by camera traps and environmental layers were derived from UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Results/Conclusions:

In general, models gave good performances, ranging from AUC = 0.933 to AUC = 0.950 for wild boar and from AUC = 0.857 to AUC = 0.964 for water deer). According to the variables selected three as important parameters for all seasons, The distributions of Water deer were mainly constrained by subsidiary trails, road which are human impact variables. the distributions of Wild boar were mainly constrained by subsidiary trails, road while distance to fence was an important environmental variable (51.52%) in the harvesting season. The difference in the distribution of the two species was mainly between the growing season and the harvesting season, when the fence was installed. A distribution of Water deer present suitability values which gradually increased from the seedling season to the harvesting season in the overall study area. On the other hand, Wild boar showed a different pattern, with high suitability value concentrated around of subsidiary trails and water. At fence erection spot, during the harvesting season, high permeability area of Water deer was maintained while its of Wild boar disappeared. Such knowledge is particularly important to solve coexistence issue and establish wildlife conservation strategies.