Comparing terrain and vegetation-based visibility for explaining sable flight behaviour in a Southern African savanna     

Henry Ndaimani  Amon Murwira  Shakkie Kativu 《国际地球制图》2013,28(2):130-143

In this study, we tested whether terrain-based visibility modelled from a remotely sensed ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM) explains sable flight initiation distance (FID) better than vegetation-based visibility measured in the field. We also tested whether the effect of hunting on sable FID varies with spatial scale. We first performed a linear regression analysis relating FID to standardized coefficients of both vegetation- and terrain-based visibility where the variable with the larger coefficient was the better predictor of FID. We latter performed an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) comparing the slopes relating FID to both measures of visibility, first at the large scale and later at the small scale within the hunting area. Our results suggest that remotely sensed terrain-based visibility predicts the FID of sable better than vegetation-based visibility. We also found that the effect of hunting on sable FID varies with spatial scale.  相似文献   

Predicting the spatial distribution of hunted and non-hunted Sable antelope (Hippotragus niger niger) using remotely sensed woody cover in a Southern African savanna     

Henry Ndaimani  Amon Murwira  Shakkie Kativu 《国际地球制图》2013,28(2):198-210

From remotely sensed woody cover, we tested whether sables under hunting pressure preferred closed woodland habitats and whether those not under hunting preferred more open woodland habitats. We applied a two factorial logistic regression analysis to model the probability of occurrence of sable antelope in hunted and non-hunted areas of northwest Zimbabwe as a function of vegetation cover density (estimated by a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)). We validated the results by high-spatial resolution imagery derived tree canopy area. We subsequently compared the predictions from the two models in order to compare sable cover selection between hunted and non-hunted areas. Our results suggest that hunted sables are likely to select closed woodland, while non-hunted ones would prefer more open woodland habitats. We also established a significant positive relationship between NDVI and tree canopy cover, thus emphasizing the importance of remote sensing in studies that measure the impact of hunting on habitat selection of targeted species.  相似文献