Trophy hunting and perceived risk in closed ecosystems: Flight behaviour of three gregarious African ungulates in a semi-arid tropical savanna VICTOR K. MUPOSHI, 1 * EDSON GANDIWA, 1 STANLEY M. MAKUZA 2 AND PAUL BARTELS 3 1 School of Wildlife, Ecology and Conservation, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe (Email: vkmuposhi@gmail.com), 2 School of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe and 3 Department of Nature Conservation, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa Abstract Although being an important conservation tool in Africa, trophy hunting is known to influence risk percep- tion in wildlife species, thus affecting the behaviour and fitness of most targeted species. We studied the effects of trophy hunting on the flight behaviour of impala (Aepyceros melampus), greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) and sable (Hippotragus niger) in two closed ecosystems, Cawston Ranch (hunting area) and Stanley and Livingstone Private Game Reserve (tourist area), western Zimbabwe. Using standardized field procedures, we assessed the flight behavioural re- sponses of the three species in two seasons: non-hunting (December–March) and hunting (April–November) between March 2013 and November 2014. We tested the effect of habitat, group size, sex, season, start distance and alert dis- tance on flight initiation distance using linear mixed models. Habitat, group size sex and alert distance did not have any effect on flight initiation distance for the three species. The three species were more alert and displayed longer flight initiation distances in the hunting area compared with the tourist area. Flight initiation distances for the three species were higher during the hunting season for the hunting area and low during the non-hunting season. Flight distances of the three species did not differ between the hunting area and the tourist area. We concluded that trophy hunting in- creased perceived risk of wild ungulates in closed hunting areas, whereas ungulates in non-hunting areas are less respon- sive and somehow habituated to human presence. Management plans should include minimum approach distances by tourists as well as establishing seasonal restrictions on special zones to promote species viability. Research aimed at in- tegrating behavioural responses with physiological aspects of target species should be promoted to ensure that managers are able to deal with the behavioural trade-offs of trophy hunting at local and regional scale. Key words: alert distance, animal fitness, flight initiation distance, human disturbance, sport hunting, wildlife harvesting. INTRODUCTION Increased levels of human-induced disturbances on wildlife through recreation (e.g. trophy hunting; Damm 2008; Lindsey et al. 2007) have prompted researchers to place more emphasis on how human disturbances im- pact the behaviour of wildlife (Pelletier, 2006; Maréchal et al. 2011). The integration of behavioural research into wildlife conservation has become critical for persistence and viability of species (Whitwell et al. 2012; Festa- Bianchet & Apollonio 2013). Wildlife species normally perceive humans as potential predators (Frid & Dill 2002; Beale & Monaghan 2004), and as such have evolved anti-predator strategies of evading predation and risk assessment (McEvoy et al. 2008; Thaker et al. 2011; Thurfjell et al. 2013; McGowan et al. 2014). Nonetheless, the behavioural trade-offs associated with these avoidance mechanisms may compromise the fit- ness and persistence of targeted species because trophy hunting may scale up levels of risk assessment (Rösner et al. 2014). Moreover, predation avoidance mecha- nisms and associated behavioural plasticity may lead to ecological traps through habitat shifts and consequent loss of fitness (Malo et al. 2011; Mella et al. 2014). The increased fright and flight behaviour as a result of trophy hunting pressure may result in low feed intake and re- duced reproductive success (Ciuti et al. 2012). In theory, animals occupying landscapes with high predation risk tend to exhibit behavioural changes as an adaptation mechanism (Brown et al. 1999; Ciuti et al. 2012). Trophy hunting has been observed to influence the behaviour of wild herbivores in open savanna ecosys- tems (de Boer et al. 2004; Matson et al. 2005; Crosmary et al. 2012; Ndiweni et al. 2015). However, there are few studies that have looked at the influence of trophy hunt- ing on flight behaviour of wild ungulates in closed eco- systems of sub-Saharan Africa, except for those carried *Corresponding author. Accepted for publication February 2016. © 2016 Ecological Society of Australia doi:10.1111/aec.12367 Austral Ecology (2016) 41, 809–818