In this dissertation, I develop and apply various spatially explicit methods to quantify ecological conditions and space use of large carnivores in multifunctional landscapes such as protected areas and rangelands. I investigate how the social behavior and space use of several large carnivore species vary across ecological gradients within Kenyan protected areas exposed to high levels of pastoralist activity, identify avenues for future research in spatial ecology and conservation behavior, and provide methodology by which to pursue these lines of research. In Chapter One, I develop a novel approach to land cover classification in heterogeneous savanna landscapes and apply it to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. This Reserve is of great value for conservation, international research collaborations, and use by local pastoralists for livestock grazing. I achieve unparalleled success in distinguishing among different grass heights as well as other diverse land cover types, thus providing a valuable tool by which to extract land cover for use as a spatially explicit predictor of wildlife behavior (e.g., space use, conflict with humans) and to monitor the effect of livestock grazing intensity on grass height and cover in future studies. In Chapter Two, I use these land cover data as well as a historical database of other environmental variables, livestock abundance, and large carnivore sightings to assess how carnivores have shifted their spatial distributions and habitat selection over the years in response to the presence and abundance of livestock and herders inside the Reserve. In Chapter Three, I provide guidelines for individual identification of hyaenids using naturally occurring markings, review the substantial utility of this method in past and ongoing basic research, and identify important avenues by which to apply this method to the monitoring and conservation of wild hyaenids and the mitigation of human-hyaenid conflict in shared landscapes. In Chapter Four, I seek to better understand the social system of a poorly understood and globally declining large carnivore, the striped hyena. Specifically, I conducted the first empirical study of pasting in striped hyenas and described social behavior at den sites, including the first reported case of allonursing, to show that this population is highly social and even exhibits cooperative care of offspring. The diversity of social systems observed across striped hyena populations in recent studies suggests that this species is much more behaviorally plastic than previously recognized. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of the complex relationships between carnivores’ behavior and the environments in which they live, as well as how human activity mediates these interactions. Overlooking the behavioral adaptations that humans induce in large carnivores could prevent us from predicting trophic cascades that result in the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Alternatively, seeking to understand these behavioral responses could facilitate the innovation of novel techniques by which to promote the coexistence of humans and carnivores in multifunctional landscapes.
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