How do African elephants utilize the landscape during wet season? A habitat connectivity analysis for Sioma Ngwezi landscape in Zambia 2021 (English)In: Ecology and Evolution, E-ISSN 2045-7758, Vol. 11, no 21, p. 14916-14931Article in journal (Refereed) Published

Abstract [en]

1. The influence of environmental factors on the distribution and persistence of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) is pertinent to policy makers and managers to formulate balanced plans for different land-use types.
2. The study focuses on movement of elephants and how they utilize foraging areas in Sioma Ngwezi landscape in Zambia by answering the following questions: (1) Which environmental variables and land-cover class predict the movement of elephants during the wet season in Sioma Ngwezi landscape? (2) What is the wet season suitable habitat for elephants in Sioma Ngwezi landscape? (3) What are the major wet season movement corridors for elephants in Sioma Ngwezi landscape?
3. We used GPS telemetry data from the collared elephants to assess habitat connectivity. Maximum entropy (MaxEnt) and linkage mapper were the tools used to predict habitat suitability, movement corridors, and barriers in the landscape during the wet season.
4. The study identified elevation, land cover, and NDVI as the most important environmental predictors that modify the dispersal of elephants in the landscape during the wet season. Additionally, a total of 36 potential wet season corridors were identified connecting 15 core areas mainly used for foraging and protection from poachers in the landscape. Of these, 24 corridors were highly utilized and are suggested as priority corridors for elephant movement in the landscape.
5. The identified wet season habitats and functional corridors may help to combat elephant poaching by patrolling areas with high relative probability of elephant presence. The findings may also help abate human–elephant conflict such as crop-raiding by managing identified corridors that run into agriculture zones in the game management area.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

2021. Vol. 11, no 21, p. 14916-14931

Keywords [en]

habitat suitability, human–elephant conflicts, KAZA, Loxodonta africana, maximum entropy, resistant raster, telemetry data

National Category

Physical Geography Zoology

Research subject

Animal Ecology; Geography, Physical Geography; Zoology

Identifiers

URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-198660DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8177ISI: 000704505500001PubMedID: 34765150OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-198660DiVA, id: diva2:1611384

Funder

Swedish InstituteAvailable from: 2021-11-15 Created: 2021-11-15 Last updated: 2024-01-17Bibliographically approved

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Chibeya, DoubtWood, HeatherCousins, Sara

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