Greg Distiller's research while affiliated with University of Cape Town and other places

... Some Karoo farmers view black-backed jackal as 'belonging' only in protected areas, where they contribute positively to the natural system, and argue that on rangelands they become a destructive 'pest'-thus necessitating lethal population control (Drouilly et al., 2021). Yet recent studies conducted in this region (Drouilly et al., 2018a;Woodgate et al., 2023) have shown that black-backed jackal had similar occurrence probabilities between small-livestock farmland and a nearby public protected area. However, they were significantly more likely to occur within a neighbouring private protected area, where large predators and ungulates provided ample scavenging opportunities (Woodgate et al., 2023). ...

... Or again, photograph-based individual identification studies have been conducted on cetaceans to assess survival rate, site fidelity and seasonal residence (Zanardelli et al., 2022) However, to fully harness the potential of such data, a freely available, opensource platform that allows collecting, managing, accessing and processing a great amount of data with high accuracy in relatively little time needs to be developed. Without such a centralised and easily accessible platform, data may be stored locally with single researchers, citizen scientists, organisations and individual tourists, thus resulting in scattered and patchy data that is of limited use (MacFadyen et al., 2022). ...

... In this exploratory study, we had expected a higher encounter probability at sites 2, 2.3, and 3 ( Figure 1) because they are within the area where the cooperative fishery consistently happens. Thus, dolphins tend to spend more time there, which increases the chance of recapturing a signature whistle (Fearey et al., 2022). However, dolphins do not necessarily use signature whistles during that specialized foraging strategy, as suggested by other studies that found a reduced emission of these whistles in feeding contexts (Cook et al., 2004). ...

... [67] for comparison with previous estimates from the region. After considering previous leopard studies [60,74] and testing the fit of various detection functions, a hazard half-normal detection function was used. Sex was used as a covariate on λ 0 (expected number of detections at distance zero between the camera and the animal's activity centre) and σ (spatial rate of decay). ...

... Camera-based methods to estimate movement parameters have been focused on method development (Vazquez et al. 2019, Distiller et al. 2020, population density estimation Wearn et al. 2022, Buckland et al. 2023, estimating movement parameters for whole species communities (Wearn et al. 2022), involving citizen science programs (Schaus et al. 2020), and assessing predator-prey effects (Caravaggi et al. 2018). Unmarked methods that account for activity level and day range are now being considered as a reference to estimate population density . ...

... Males reach sexual maturity at 75.0 -91.0 cm and females at 75.0 -93.0 cm in total length (Lt; Dainty, 2002;Ebert et al. 2021). Although distribution and abundance surveys have been conducted using mark-recapture and baited remote underwater videos (De Vos et al. 2015;Grusd et al. 2019, T. Johnson et al. unpubl data, 2023, little is known about the reproductive biology and growth of this species. As an oviparous species, the incubation period is 164 days after egg laying, and the Lt at hatching is estimated to be 14 cm (von Bonde, 1948;Ebert et al. 2021), but detailed information is lacking because only one fertilized egg was observed by von Bonde. ...

... This study's estimate of 0.64 leopards per 100 km2 falls in the middle of density estimates for the Western Cape region (S1 Table in [76][77][78] are generally higher than density estimates for leopards in the Western Cape [15,20,22,24]. These areas with higher leopard densities often fall within more suitable leopard habitat and within protected areas [12,77]. ...

... Only two species had probabilities of habitat use ≥0.50 under heavy transformation, namely common duiker and chacma baboons. Duiker has previously been found to be abundant on highly disturbed land in both drylands (Drouilly and O'Riain, 2019;Woodgate et al., 2018) and natural forests (Hou et al., 2021;Lwanga, 2006). In the Western Cape region of SA, chacma baboons have been shown to thrive in commercial plantations, achieving very high densities relative to surrounding natural habitat O'Riain, 2012, 2011). ...

... Capture-mark-recapture methods rely on the physical capture of individuals to collect the individual encounter history. Due to technological advances, the ability to capture individuals has been improved through more efficient methods, such as camera traps [8], acoustic recordings, and DNA samples [9,10]. Individuals can be virtually captured using their signs without being identified. ...

... The Cape gannet (Morus capensis) is a monomorphic seabird species, whose longevity makes it a useful species for investigating differences in aging between sexes of similar morphology. Endemic to Southern Africa (Crawford 2005), it is considered a useful indicator species of the ecological resilience of the Benguela upwelling ecosystem (Distiller et al. 2012). While age and sex both influence the foraging behaviour of various seabird species, the potential synergetic effects of these traits remain unclear (Fay et al. 2018), especially in monomorphic species. ...