Tribulations of long-term and large-scale monitoring of hunted canids in the developing world.

ANDRÉS NOVARO; MARTÍN FUNES; ALEJANDRO TRAVAINI; DIEGO BIROCHIO; GUSTAVO PORINI

Mendoza

Workshop; The 10th International Mammalogical Congress.; 2009

Sociedad Argentina Para el Estudio de los Mamíferos

Large scale monitoring of population trends is necessary to assess the status of species, determine effectiveness of conservation and management measures, and adapt these measures when necessary. For species that are hunted for commercial purposes, monitoring must be maintained through time, beyond periods of intense hunting, because populations can decline even after commercial hunting pressure is removed and also because monitoring provides a baseline for when intense hunting is resumed. We assess factors associated with success of long-term monitoring programs of canids and other wildlife around the world and report on a monitoring system implemented during the last 20 years for canids in Argentina, which are also hunted due to conflicts with livestock. Successful monitoring has been implemented when financial mechanisms are formally established by government agencies and leaders of these agencies can develop long-term policies that outlast their positions. Canid fur exports from Argentina during the last 30 years have ranged between 1.2 million and a few thousand a year, driven mostly by changes in the demand for fur. Canid monitoring in Argentina was funded by local governments and research institutions in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2006 a legal mechanism was established by the federal government to fund monitoring of canid densities with resources from fur exports allocated to a trust fund. This system can be maintained when fur exports are high. We discuss alternative mechanisms to implement long-term monitoring of hunted canids that can be sustained in spite of market changes.