Thesis (MTech (Nature Conservation))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009 / Carnivore species globally are on the decline and population extinctions continue despite intensive conservation efforts. In Namibia, although 13.6 % of the country falls under the protection of national parks or game reserves, most of these protected areas are situated along the coastline and are desert habitat. The majority of Namibia's cheetah population (over 90 %), which is also the world's largest free-ranging population, occurs on privately owned farmland situated primarily in the north-central cattle-farming region of the country. Also occurring here are leopard, brown hyaena, caracal, and jackal and in some areas African wild dog, spotted hyaena and lion. Given the extensive nature of livestock and wildlife farming in Namibia, the low human density in rural areas and the persistence of wildlife outside protected areas, there is still considerable scope for carnivore conservation on the Namibian freehold farmlands, provided human-carnivore conflict can be managed. Great strides have been made in Namibia in developing strategies to address human carnivore conflict issues with formerly advantaged freehold farmers. However, since Namibia's independence in 1990, land reform has resulted in a new category of farmer entering the freehold farming sector, the emerging commercial farmer. No data has been gathered regarding emerging commercial farmers' attitudes and perceptions towards carnivores, the levels of camivore-conflict and livestock management practices in relation to livestock losses to carnivores.

<div>Biodiversity loss is the silent crisis of the 21st century. Human activities are drastically altering the diversity of life on Earth, yet the extent of this transformation is shrouded by our limited information on biodiversity and how it is changing. Emerging technologies may be suited to fill this information gap, and as a result increase our capacity to measure and manage natural systems. Acoustic monitoring is a remote sensing technique that is rapidly reshaping the temporal and spatial scales with which we can assess animal biodiversity. Through recording and analyzing soundscapes—the collection of sounds occurring at a given place and time—we can assess biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change. However, the relationships between soundscapes and these three ecological dimensions are still in the early phases of categorization, especially in aquatic systems. </div><div><br></div><div>This dissertation investigates how soundscapes can be used to measure biodiversity, habitat condition, and environmental change in aquatic habitats. It addresses several knowledge gaps: First, I develop a framework for classifying unknown sounds within a soundscape, which I use to measure the acoustic diversity and dynamics within a tropical freshwater wetland. Second, I demonstrate that soundscapes can reflect the resilience of animal communities following disturbance events. Altered soundscapes revealed that Hurricane Maria, which swept through Puerto Rico in September 2017, impacted dry forest animal communities more than adjacent coral reef communities. Third, in kelp forest habitats off the coast of California, USA, I showed that soundscape variables correlated with ecological variables associated with regime shift in kelp forests, including urchin density, kelp cover, and fish diversity. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that soundscape recording and analysis is a promising way to assess the ecological conditions of aquatic systems. </div>