posted on 2017-02-21, 14:20authored byJuan M. Pleguezuelos, Luis García-Cardenete, Jesús Caro, Mónica Feriche, María T. Pérez-García, Xavier Santos, Marisa Sicilia, Soumia Fahd
Anthropogenic
infrastructures are one of the major threats to biodiversity. In the
north-western Sahara shepherds are increasingly building water cisterns of
reinforced concrete for watering livestock. These infrastructures attract
desert fauna and act as indiscriminate death traps for the amphibians and
reptiles (herps) in the surrounding habitats. Here we propose an on-site,
cost-effective management measure. We selected two groups of 36 cisterns,
managed a group by covering the lateral openings with wire mesh (managed
cistern), leaving the other group unmanaged (control cistern). Managed cisterns
trapped fewer species, fewer individuals (one third), and individuals of
smaller body size and of less conservation concern than did control cisterns.
In a multivariate approach by Generalized Mixed Models, the best models
explaining the number of species and individuals of herps trapped within
cisterns included as the predictor only the management condition, with a trend for
higher values in control cisterns.