Contemporary niche contraction affects climate change predictions for elephants and giraffes

Aim: Climate change assessments are largely based on correlative species distribution models (SDMs) that are sensible to spatial biases or incompleteness of input distribution data. We tested whether changes on the species’ climatic niche resulting from recent human-induced range contractions have a significant influence on SDM predictions of future species distributions. Location: Africa. Methods: For […]

Key innovations in ruminant evolution: A paleontological perspective

Key innovations are newly acquired structures that permit the performance of a new function and open new adaptive zones, and are, therefore, of paramount significance for understanding the history of the Ruminantia, particularly its diversification through the Miocene. Here we review and discuss what is known about these evolutionary novelties, with special emphasis on the […]

Changing Wildlife Populations in Nairobi National Park and Adjoining Athi-Kaputiei Plains: Collapse of the Migratory Wildebeest

There is mounting concern about declines in wildlife populations in many protected areas in Africa. Migratory ungulates are especially vulnerable to impacts of changing land use outside protected areas on their abundance. Range compression may compromise the capacity of migrants to cope with climatic variation, and accentuate both competitive interactions and predation. We analyzed the […]

Herbivore Dynamics and Range Contraction in Kajiado County Kenya: Climate and Land Use Changes, Population Pressures, Governance, Policy and Human-wildlife Conflicts

Wildlife populations are declining severely in many protected areas and unprotected pastoral areas of Africa. Rapid large-scale land use changes, poaching, climate change, rising population pressures, governance, policy, economic and socio-cultural transformations and competition with livestock all contribute to the declines in abundance. Here we analyze the population dynamics of 15 wildlife and four livestock […]

Population ecology of Maasai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) in relation to climate variability in southern Kenya.

Wildlife populations and their habitats are facing serious threats from global changes in climate and human development activities. Large herbivores with slow reproductive rates, bulk food requirements, wide foraging ranges and high potential value are highly vulnerable to those changes. Their responses to environmental pressures and human-induced landscape changes are however, not well understood.  The […]

Patterns of Variation of Herbivore Assemblages at Nairobi National Park, Kenya, 1990-2008

Wildlife, especially mammals populations dynamics in many conservation areas are influenced by ecosystem processes and increasingly by climate change. Generally, cyclic population dynamics is relatively common among small mammals, especially in high latitudes but is not yet established among many African savanna ungulates. Habitat fragmentation and loss propagated by anthropogenic activities are responsible for the […]