Covariates
The following covariates (Table 1) were used in analyses of hyena
landscape use and navigation: normalized difference vegetation index
(NDVI; 30m, Landsat 8 Surface Reflectance Tier 1, rainy and dry seasonal
averages for 2019), slope (30m, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
[STRM]), elevation (30m, STRM), distance to rivers, distance to
lakes, distance to boundaries, distance to verified livestock predation
locations, distance to regions people perceive as being risky due to
hyenas, and distance to participatory mapped livestock predation
locations during the study period. The latter two variables were derived
using participatory mapping data from communities living within 2 km of
the protected area boundaries, while the verified predation dataset was
from the local wildlife authority, Kenya Wildlife Service (Wilkinson et al. 2021a). Because the killing of or retaliation against
wildlife is illegal in Kenya, participatory mapped livestock predation
and participatory mapped risks from spotted hyenas can serve as proxies
for spatially explicit intolerance or acceptance of spotted hyenas by
local communities and are associated with the potential for deterrents
and aversive behaviors toward hyenas. Euclidean distance was used for
all distance layers, and road layers were derived through Open Street
Maps and by hand tracing. Fences assessed in barrier analyses were
mapped in person by driving and walking the boundaries of the protected
areas. All distance covariates were created as rasters with 30m spatial
resolution to match the NDVI, slope, and elevation rasters.